Severed Reality
by hypaalicious
Summary: A boring college campus suddenly turns upside down as the orphanage gang appear and unknowingly drag a pair of curious students through the tale of FFVIII.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N:** This was written during my first year of college and continued well into my third year, originally just for "shits and giggles". As you can see, it's blossomed into the longest (and most entertaining) fanfiction I have written. It is also dedicated to my best friend and established FFVIII fanfic author, The Paradox.

I should warn you, though. This fanfiction contains no sex scenes, but lots of questionable language. One of my characters has a potty mouth.

Tip to keep in mind with this fiction: What it seems to be on the surface may not be what it truly is. But if it's still not your cup of tea after all of that, then of course I bear no ill will. And I don't own FFVIII; Square Enix does. Naturally.

* * *

Grand Valley State University. Not exactly a big college campus, but shouldn't be called a tiny one, either. Tucked into the desolate corner of West Michigan, the college easily made up the blunt of the farmland town of Allendale. Even though it was famous for their fantastic football team and elaborate campus housing units, it was still overlooked by the other, more popular universities such as Michigan State or Western.

Perhaps most college appliers weren't too keen on having cornfields as a substitute for a college town.

Outside of schoolwork and classes, and the occasional bus trip every Saturday down to the ONE shopping mall that was 30 miles away, GVSU's alumni were pretty damn bored.

But unbeknownst to two particular college freshmen, their seemingly normal campus life would be turned upside down in ways that they never, ever thought possible... except in their overactive imaginations.

Regina Stewart and Sharon Gladden walked into the "quiet room", trays in hand. Sitting down at their usual positions in a cozy booth, Sharon took in the area. It wasn't OFFICIALLY dubbed the quiet room. In fact... she wasn't sure if the place had a real name at all. It was all in Kliener, one of the main eateries available at GVSU... and the closest one to all the freshman housing. Either way, they both started staking out this room when they first arrived at Grand Valley State University, for the more peaceful environment and escape from the flies that often found their way into the building. It was always either hornets, wasps or flies. For now, however, the warm days that invited the insects to sneak in through the doors were gone, as the Fall semester was winding down to cold, wintery, bleary days filled with lots of snow and pressure for the quickly approaching finals.

Regina took her time and slowly took off her hat and coat, relieved to find that it was actually room temperature today. It was either too cold or too hot... both inside and outside. As she sat down, she took little notice of the fact that Sharon was already busy munching on her French fries. _I swear, that girl is going to choke one day. Does she even taste the food? _She thought. But of course, it didn't really surprise her. All through their days in high school, she should know her best friend by now.

Sharon waited until Gina was seated to look up and say, "So, how was your day?"

It was so funny how formal the conversations always start out between the two. Just by that one statement, people might think that the two girls just barely knew each other, but if they stuck around long enough, they would see that it was hardly the case. The two have been friends since the beginning of high school in the bustling motor city of Detroit, over an anime called Bishoujo Senshi Sailormoon. Since then, of course, they had their problems since then, but truth be told, they were now way closer than they had ever been. Going to the same high school, college, and even church for a short while had brought them closer than many had thought possible, since they were so different.

Sharon, at first glance, may not even look like the kind of person to pack away approximately twice her body weight in food. No matter how much she ate, she never seemed to bypass 118 lbs. She also thought of herself as fairly tall for being a girl, even if she knew it was now becoming more of the norm to see girls reach heights of over 5'7. Sharon had light caramel skin and brown eyes that were always rimmed by small silver frames, and her dark brown hair was always in some sort of weird or interesting style. However, Sharon never really thought much on the aspects of her looks the way most girls her age would; she just liked attracting attention in other ways, like showing off her wardrobe that she supposed no human being should attempt to pull off. One of her trademarks that she was already sort of known for was her Lisa Frank blue jean jackets, since the back of every one that she owned had a different, neon colored mural made entirely of a large beach towel. The Lisa Frank franchise had long since stopped making them, which made Sharon very sad, but at the same time happy that no one else would have the same outerwear as she. Her choice in clothing and music often got her confused for being a "raver child", even though she never personally assigned herself that title.

Oh yeah, and she probably needed to be sedated every now and then.

Regina, on the other hand, was probably the polar opposite. She wasn't outspoken, and outside of her best friend and a select few others, she kept to herself and settled for observing people and her surroundings. She never wanted to attract ANY kind of attention to herself, for fear that her timid nature would cause her to blush furiously and pass out in shock. Believe it or not, Regina was better than she was in comparison to her high school years, but without Sharon literally shoving confidence down her throat she probably wouldn't have gotten as far as she did. However, people seemed to be more drawn to Regina's reserved nature as compared to scaring people off as Sharon had a knack of doing. She wasn't as slim or as tall as her best friend, and settled for more normal types of clothing, such as oversized hoodies and comfortable jeans. Her black hair was long, and NEVER failed to be pulled back in a simple ponytail at the nape of her neck, revealing her angelic, baby-like face. Regina's music of choice was anything rock related, as her favorite group at the moment happened to be Linkin Park. Lots of people were surprised to know that she listened to "alternative" music, since the stereotypical African-American only listened to rap and R&B. Maybe that's why Regina and Sharon were two of a kind; both of them broke the "norms" and were pretty damn content with doing it, too.

But no matter what the differences were, they always found something to talk about animatedly.

Maybe that was why they always went out to eat and didn't come back for 5 hours.

It's not like their conversations held any sort of importance or significance to anyone who walked in or happened to listen in on parts of it. It was like they spoke another language; many a time they got weird looks for their sudden outbursts of laughter that seemed uninitiated, or from a simple line that made entirely no sense. It would probably take a lifetime to figure out the inside jokes that they took because in order to understand them, one more than likely have had to live the life they lived. From the interests that they did have in common, to the many obstacles they had overcome, it was the cause of an unbreakable friendship between the two girls.

They started off their seemingly normal dinner conversation by discussing many video games and the most recent anime they were both hooked on, doing the usual thing of drawing occasional weird looks from random people that happened to sit near them or walk by. Sharon paused to sip on her lemonade and take a casual glance around the room. _Not many people in here today,_ she thought. That was good. She didn't like crowds much anyways, which is why they always chose this room. No crowds meant less people to eavesdrop and think they were completely and utterly insane.

Then _he_ walked in.

At first, Sharon was going to blow it off as just another guy walking in the door, but... this person was different. She didn't know why at the moment, but she couldn't stop staring. Her eyes peered over the small frames of her glasses at the newcomer, temporarily fazing out of the conversation.

Regina was going to continue the conversation when she noticed that Sharon's attention was directed somewhere else, quite blatantly. "Sharii-chan?" Regina tilted her head to the side and blinked. "Whatcha staring at?"

Sharon glanced at Regina and then back at mystery man that now seated himself on the couch in front of the fireplace. "Hey Gina... what do you think of him? He seems familiar to me in a way, but... I dunno, at the same time, I just think I'm crazy."

Gina followed Sharon's gaze to the guy sitting on the couch. His eyes stared at the flames licking the logs in the fireplace. He was in his own world, his eyes unblinking. Gina squinted a little bit and studied him a little bit more. His chestnut hair framed his face in a somewhat careless manner, parts of it stopping right at his nose while others reached his chin.

"His hair is cute." Gina nibbled on a curly fry. "Even if it does look like he just got up out of bed."

"HA! That's true, it does!" Sharon finally diverted her gaze elsewhere, trying to shove off the twinge that she still felt. "His ass needs a comb. Dare you to go over there and tell him that he needs one."

"WHAT? No! I like it that way. Reminds me of Squall's hair." She giggled and continued munching.

Sharon froze. _Squall's hair?_ She whipped her head back around to the couch, where the guy still sat, still entranced by the flames in front of him. She wasn't even sure if he blinked. But upon examining him further...

"Gina... now that you mention it... he really looks like him."

"Really looks like who?" Gina stared at her quizzically.

"HE REALLY LOOKS LIKE SQUALL, DAMNIT!" Sharon caught herself and lowered her voice. "For real, man, look at him."

Sharon sort of needed some confirmation when it came to any Final Fantasy except X. FFVIII was Gina forte; she knew that game like the back of her hand, just like Sharon to FFX.

Which is why when Gina gasped in surprise, Sharon almost keeled over.

"Oh... my god. No, no, no..." Gina started shaking her head as if to clear her mind. "You know, I think I just really want to play FFVIII so bad that I'm making myself see things."

"No, you aren't!" Sharon countered. "I'm the crazy one here, not you. Ok, so we have a guy that resembles Squall. Nice. But there's only one way we can prove if it really is him..."

"... the scar." Gina finished. The legendary scar that was permanently etched across Squall's face during an unpleasant training encounter with his much-hated rival, Seifer. And right now, if either of them saw much of stray hair that LOOKED like the slanted scar, they would probably faint.

"... ok, let's sit back and realize the insanity of what we are proposing here. We are trying to say that people out of a VIDEO GAME... exist in our world. Yeah, ok, we fantasize and THINK about it, and even write a few fanfics about it from time to time, but that sort of thing could not happen in real life. Right? Right? Hello?" Sharon watched the remnants of a curly fry dropped out of Gina's hand back onto her plate. Perplexed, Sharon turned around to see what was distracting her friend so much.

A man with a cowboy hat and a tan trench coat had accompanied the mystery person on the couch.

_Holy shit._

Gina stuttered. "... it's Irvine. Oh my god... it's him... oh my god... oh my god... oh my g-"

"STOP HYPE... stop hyperventilating. This is REALITY here."

"But that doesn't explain why they're still here!"

For what seemed like an hour, they both stared at the two men on the couch. The guy in the cowboy hat was talking to the other, but he didn't seem very responsive. A nod here and there.

"Humph. They are cosplayers."

Gina blinked as if to clear her eyes of the view in front of her, and looked at Sharon. "... what?"

Sharon leaned back in the booth casually and sipped her lemonade, trying to cover up any doubts with nonchalance. "It's simple. They're really, REALLY good cosplayers. Don't know why they're here, but I think that it's cool that they came in costume and all."

"Sharii... are you sure?"

"It's more reasonable than the theory that they came out of a video game. Cosplay is something that can happen in reality."

"Oh, yeah... I guess you're right. We... we were just being really stupid." Laughing shakily, she continued talking. "This is what we get for having overactive imaginations."

Sharon laughed. "Yeah. However," She glanced back at the pair. "I would like to get a closer look at their costumes."

Gina stopped breathing. "... you going to go over there?"

"Umm... no." Sharon admitted. "I WANT to, but umm... seeing as though I have a tendency to make a fool of myself, I don't think I want to do it in front of them. Maybe as we're getting out of here, we can sneak a direct look at them without being that obvious. We'll have a perfect view from the trash banister."

Even though the plan was set, neither girl moved.

Sharon breathed. They were both being so stupid over all of this. Grabbing her tray, she initiated her intent to get to that trashcan and get it all over with. Gina quickly followed suit, putting on her coat and stuffing her hat in her pocket.

It was now or never.

Walking casually, or as casual as she could muster, to the trash banister, she pushed the flap in and dumped her trash in and casually glanced over at the couch. She felt bad for "Irvine", as he tried to get "Squall" in a conversation. _Damn, they're really in character._ She examined "Irvine" more closely, now that her view wasn't entirely blocked by his cowboy hat. Chestnut tendrils also framed his face, but not in the same way "Squall's" did. It was definitely longer, and wavy.

Gina stared straight at her destination: the trashcan. She was going to make it there. Yes she was. She was not going to spaz. She was calm. Cool. Collected. Yes. As Gina approached, Sharon pushed in the "Thank You" slot absently. She was still pretty much staring at the two guys. _Wasn't the plan to be inconspicuous?_ Gina glanced over to see if the two men noticed her boring holes in them, and was relieved to see that they didn't. Putting her scraps in the trash, she let out a breath she didn't know she was holding.

And she also was looking down at the floor at a mass of curly fries she didn't know she dropped.

Both Gina and Sharon froze. _How in the hell did fries get on the floor? They were in the trash. How did they get out of the trash?_ Gina could've sworn she put the tray IN the trash... or maybe she didn't. The small glance she took while trying to be nonchalant about dumping her garbage might've did it... but she only looked away for a split second! _How..._

Never mind. Both girls snapped out of temporary paralysis to tend to the matter at hand: _pick up the fries before they notice._

Both girls stooped down at the same time to scoop up the fries on the floor. Hell, they might have just picked up some fries that weren't theirs. They picked them up in record time, and just as Sharon was throwing the last fry into the trash, they heard the distinctive voice.

"You ladies need any help?"

Gina was not moving. She was going to look straight down at the floor and _not move an inch. _Since her field of vision at the moment was directed at the floor, she examined three pairs of feet; Sharon's worn Sketchers with the colorful ribbon shoelaces, her own newly bought white sparkly Sketchers, and… brown cowboy boots. _Oh lord... I think I'm going to die..._

Sharon only knew of two people with a distinct southern drawl, and they were Matt and Jeff Hardy from the WWF, a program that both she and Gina watched religiously. Even then, she wouldn't even call the accent that she heard to be southern... but it was the closest thing to it, she guessed. Looking at the person standing in front of her, she saw the face of someone who seriously reminded her of Shawn Michaels (in his younger days) but had the voice of Jeff Hardy. Not completely comprehending the situation at hand, she figured all was lost, their cover blown, and all that was left to do was take the direct approach.

Tossing the last curly fry in the garbage, Sharon put on her best nonchalant, unconcerned look on her face and looked squarely at him. "No, we have everything under control, thank you." _Damn, did I mean to come out sounding that cold? Oh well, deserves him right, coming over here like that..._

The man in the cowboy hat smirked. _She was going to be a tough one, all right. _"You didn't have 'everything under control' a second ago, ma'am." He replied, a devilish glint in his deep blue eyes.

_… oh HELL naw this fool ain't… _Sharon's eyes narrowed. "So what? We do now."

"You sure? You don't seem to have your emotions under control."

"That would be none of your business."

"Unless I made it my business."

"Until I shove my foot up your ass."

"Touché."

"Fuck you."

"Oh, I'm sure you'd be happy to be obliged."

Sharon's eye twitched. At this point, she didn't care if he came from Mars; she wanted to kick his ass. She knew he was just doing this to get her agitated... and it was working. She stared at his boyish face with the most disarming grin, and all she could do was glare back. Then, Sharon remembered that Gina was STILL in that same spot, with her eyes directed at the ground. _Shit. How long have I been standing here causing unnecessary drama? _

Putting his hands in his coat, the cowboy continued this stare down with ease. _Heh. Getting her angry was easier than I thought. _However, he couldn't understand why he reacted the way he did. Being _that_ smart-assed wasn't part of his nature; he wanted to woo girls, not get beat up by them. But the situation had been too tempting.

At that point, Gina looked up. The whole time they had been standing there trading insults like regular high school children, she had been collecting her sanity and courage. Looking directly at the cowboy, she took a deep breath and said, "Umm, excuse me, but I was wondering if you could tell me your name."

Sharon blinked and looked at Gina. If anyone looked at the situation at this moment, they would swear that Gina was trying to ask the guy out. Well, at least the whole point of this escapade was to find out exactly who the two men were, and was going to be solved.

Switching his view to Gina, he flashed another one of his trademark grins. "It'd be a pleasure." Taking Gina's hand and kissing it lightly, he looked just out from beneath his cowboy hat into her eyes. "Irvine Kinneas, at your service."


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N:** Regina is referred to by the narrator as Gina, but Sharon is never referred to as Sharii by anyone except Gina. I don't know why I wrote it that way, but by the time I noticed I was at Chapter 20 or something. Okay, enough of me talking. Carry on.

* * *

Packing up her old black duffel bag, Gina carefully laid her PS2 on top of all the cables that would be needed to set the system up in the lobby of her living center of Swanson. She wanted to play some more of Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, and Tiffany was _not _going to interfere when she was this close to finishing the game.

Tiffany wasn't really that bad of a person. She was just... a hard to swallow roommate. Annoying habits that Tiffany frequently did at home, followed her up to college. Gina honestly thought that the reason why Tiffany does some of the VERY annoying quirks is because she's so comfortable living with a friend from grade school.

Which is a good thing for Tiffany, but not as much for Gina.

There were times where she thought she would be driven to insanity by the way Tiffany acted, or did certain things, or even lashed out and then played it off like she was "just messing" with her. Her infatuation with pink was also another matter; the entire dorm room that they shared had specks of it EVERYWHERE, so it seemed like the whole room was Tiffany's with just Gina as a visitor. And Gina DETESTED the color pink. Tiffany had a knack of making everything look like someone washed the room with Pepto Bismol. She was always bugging Gina about being more feminine and wearing skirts and makeup, which Gina wasn't even going to TOUCH. Her style consisted primarily of hoodies, T-shirts with dragons on them, and baggy pants. Any other person who tried to pull off the style that Gina did would come off as a guy poser, but Gina's own femininity brought out the clothes in a way that made it unique. But no matter what, Tiffany always wanted to make it her job to dress up Gina like a china doll, with the pose of a beauty queen. Which was exactly why a simple trip out to the lobby to play video games was a much-needed savior from it all, as well as those 5-hour dinners with Sharon.

Speaking of dinners, Gina still didn't know what to think that fateful encounter 2 days ago. Sharon was insistent in the fact that Irvine was lying about who he was, no matter how close he resembled the actual gunman off of FFVIII. But of course, Sharon was still pissed off at his nonchalant, yet arrogant attitude. Neither of them got to interrogate the one whom they believed was Squall, because by the time all three of them had pulled themselves together, he was gone. Irvine groaned and said something about how he had been trying to start a conversation with him for a while now, and exited the quiet room with a wink to the girls.

No trace of either of the men since.

Gina was trying to chalk things up, but to what? Nothing was going to make sense if she thought about it too much, but it wasn't one of the situations in which one says it was a dream and carry on with their mundane existence. Sharon didn't stay mad over dreams, and it was impossible for them BOTH to experience the same dream at the exact same time. Well, at least in Gina's mind, it wasn't. And that kiss on her hand the suave cowboy gave her was WAY too real to just make up.

Shaking her head in an attempt to erase the thoughts in her mind, she lugged the duffel bag to the lobby. Emerging out of the hallway, she saw that the TV was on, and a figure was sitting on the couch in front of it. _Damnit. Why doesn't Trevor just get a TV for his room and stop hogging the one in the lobby all the time?_ Gina walked squarely around the unorganized furniture and prepared to face the absentminded RA. She _was_ going to have that TV. Trevor understood more than any other RA in her residence hall her love/hate relationship with Tiffany, and would likely fold if Gina made her intentions clear.

"Umm, Trevor, how long do you expect to have the T..."

It took her a minute to realize that this was not Trevor to whom she spoke, but Squall Leonhart.

Ok, well, THAT part wasn't certain, but it sure as hell looked like him.

Fortunately, he didn't respond... or even acknowledge her presence. The TV was on, but he wasn't looking at it. He was staring through it, the same stare that she recognized from Kliener to that fireplace. He was zoned out, effectively casting an anti-social barrier around himself.

Well, she expected no less from the Ice Prince... somewhat. Ok, she wasn't sure WHAT to expect anymore, but she knew that Squall was, by all means, not a social butterfly. She studied his familiar jacket with the fur lining that was shorter than the white shirt that he wore underneath. _Wow... all those belts... I don't think he's missing even one... _Gina began to absently think about what other students on campus thought of this young man's choice of apparel. Then something caught in the light, and her eyes immediately focused on it.

_Griever._ She would know that symbol anywhere. The silver medallion of a lion hung from his neck, as if taunting her. It'd been so long since she played FFVIII, and she was looking forward to taking the 3-hour car ride home and retrieving the disks so she could relive the story.

However, the way things kept playing out, she didn't think she would need a couple of disks to capture the story.

Blinking, Gina wondered how long she stood there boring holes into every detail of the guy. Praying that he didn't notice, she straightened up and cleared her throat.

"Uh... excuse me... I was just wondering, would you mind if I used the TV for awhile?"

No response. Not even a blink.

Gina nearly did an anime fall. She knew Squall wasn't really the talkative one, but she didn't expect him to be so oblivious. He didn't even acknowledge her existence. _I guess this wouldn't be the time to ask what his name is, either. _Sighing in defeat, she placed her duffel bag on the floor in front of the TV. If he wasn't going to talk, then she was taking the TV. As crazy as she thought she was at that point in time, it was still a better option to withstand the emo vibes of Squall Leonhart than deal with Tiffany chasing her around the room with neon-pink lipstick and black mascara. _If Sharii was here, then I bet she would've been cussing him out,_ Gina smiled to herself. The whole time while she was hooking the system up, she snuck quick glances back at Squall. It was funny how she just let herself assume in her mind what his identity was, even if it didn't turn out to be true. _I think I'm going insane, _Gina sat back in the red armchair and held her controller, waiting for GTA to finish its loading time.

A minute later, Gina was driving through the streets of Vice City, hoping to find the assets she so desperately needed as keys to help her complete the game. She wanted to keep looking at Squall from time to time, but driving an Infernus while trying to stake out a cab company to buy while avoiding as many deaths as possible was hard enough with her full attention. All she needed was the police over her just because some hooker didn't move out of her way. Gina's brain was too fried to even do a warning level cheat. Maybe cause there was something bugging her. Her brow furrowing a bit, she tried to sort through her head. _What's going on, besides the fact that I'm trying hard to forget the fact that Squall is sitting less than a couple of feet away from me... and still ignoring any human presence. Man, I wonder if he was like that before he started hating Seifer so much? Of course he was, because of what happened with Sis. But I wonder if the duel with Seifer added to his disposition? Wait a minute... the fight... the scar..._

Gina breathed in sharply, but still managed to hold onto the controller as she realized something... _the scar isn't there._

Without daring to glance to her right, thoughts tumbled out of her like a waterfall. What did it mean? All logic (or lack thereof) stated that the scar should be there. It was a part of Squall, the part that was the most distinguishing feature about him. Why wasn't it there? The situation was getting more confusing by the second. _Did it mean that it wasn't Squall after all? But how does that explain the medallion? And how did that explain Irvine?_ Gina blushed furiously as she relived the events she tried so hard to push to the back of her mind. The gunman had always been a big crush of hers from the game, and encountering him in real life didn't help her sanity any. _But his lips were so soft..._

_CRUNCH._ Gina did a face fault as her flawless silver Infernus went sailing into a pole. _Goddamnit, I lost concentration._ Placing the controller on her lap, she dug in the duffel bag for the GTA case, and pulled out a list of all the tedious codes. A health cheat was in demand. "Ok... R1, R2..." She re-memorized the code to compensate for the huge brain fart she was having, and moved to toss it back in the duffel back. She glanced up unintentionally as she was closing the bag.

Squall was looking at the screen.

This time, she could tell that it wasn't his usual soulless stare, but he was actually looking _at the game. _Nothing in his expression altered; in fact, it was hard to tell if he had even moved... but something in his icy blue eyes had changed. It wasn't the detached stare that he gave everything else, he was actually interested in what was in front of him.

To this, Gina wasn't sure how to react. To her, this was a confirmation that the person sitting on the couch was actually alive. Searching her thoughts for something that would be kind, yet not intruding, but at the same time not causing her to spaz out, she glanced down at the controller in her lap.

"Would you like to play?"

Gina forced herself not to stiffen as his gaze switched from the TV to her face, as if he was just now realizing that he wasn't the only person in the lobby. She let him search her eyes.. for what? She didn't exactly know. She kept her eyes calm and friendly and innocent, just in case he decided this was the day where the quiet one snapped and killed everyone, or something.

It seemed like an eternity, just sitting there, staring into those eyes of blue with very faint specks of brown, waiting, hoping for some sort of response.

"... whatever."

Just like that, he had closed himself off from the world once again, concealing any trace that he even considered doing anything at all.

Gina blinked. _Whatever? WHATEVER? _Her first reaction was disbelief and a little bit of anger at the fact that someone TURNED DOWN her offer at her video game. Offers from her were sparse when it came to her stuff, and it was a shock enough that she was the first to ask. But unlike her best friend Sharon, she wasn't just going to stand up and start pummeling the guy with insults. She could handle it. Closing her eyes in silent acceptance of his... somewhat decision, she turned back to the TV screen, did the health cheat, and continued on her way to the cab company. After awhile, she heard a slight rustle as he got up and silently walked out of the lobby.

_Well... I've done my job. _Gina never took her eyes off of the game in front of her, because what would it do to crash the car AGAIN just to look at someone who wasn't going to return your glance, much less accept the fact that you exist? Yet, she wasn't angry. She was strangely calm. Even though little was known about him, she understood him enough to know that if he wanted to leave, then just let him leave. She took a step forward, and Squall took a step back. No problem. Maybe now it would be easier to make herself forget that anything out of the ordinary happened after all.


	3. Chapter 3

Stretching in her seat in front of the computer screen, Sharon looked at the AA blinking on her screen from Stepmania, a computer simulation of the widely popular Bemani game Dance Dance Revolution. _5 greats off of an AAA. _She shook her head in disgust and hit the enter key. Most people would see it as a major accomplishment, but Sharon wanted the AAA. She couldn't AA anything on Maniac if it came down to the real thing, but she took advantage of the fact that the simulated version of DDR was to be done with your fingers. Which is why she was so mad whenever she missed an AAA by that close.

_Eh, whatever. Time for sugar. _Glancing around her disorganized desk for any sign of candy, she turned up empty handed. She moved her silver beads encircling the desk, and even checked to see if some were behind her lava lamp, but nothing. Turning in her seat, she scanned her roommate's desk to see if she still had any more of those raspberry creme savers left. _Damnit. Nothing there, either. _If Anne was there, she could ask if she had any more hidden anywhere, or something. Glancing out of the window, she flinched at howling wind that whipped through the leafless trees. The campus had its way of looking like a barren wasteland in the winter, and she did not feel like walking to the C-store just to get a Milky Way bar.

Sharon took that time to weigh her choices. She could either sit in her dorm and be warm and starve while playing Exotic Ethnic over and over again, or go outside and freeze to get a Milky Way. Tapping her fingers on the keyboard thoughtfully, she finally breathed heavily and grabbed her trademark Lisa Frank jacket and keys. Chocolate and caramel almost always won over.

Flinching as the winter wind hit her face when she exited Pew Living Center, her mind traveled two days past. The subject had pretty much been avoided since the time it happened, but that doesn't mean that it wasn't still there. Honestly, Sharon didn't know what to think of the entire ordeal. She couldn't exactly reason how a couple of guys just popped out of a video game into her reality. At least, not in a way that didn't earn her a brand new white jacket and first-class specimen treatment in a padded room.

Pushing the doors open to Neimeyer Living Center that sat directly across from her own, she breathed a sigh of relief from the harsh cold, if only for a moment before she emerged on the other side. Taking a glance into the Great Room, she immediately spotted her newfound friend Dave's dance pad laying on the floor in the same spot it had been for weeks, untouched. She missed playing DDR with all the cool people in Neimeyer, but DDR has obviously been put on hold for other things, like schoolwork. Sharon made a face. She needed to start doing work in her classes before finals so she wouldn't be in the dark by the time the tests came around.

Emerging on the opposite side of the building, Sharon braved the cold a few moments longer before finally reaching the inside of Kliener. Running her hands over her face for a moment in an attempt to warm up her cheeks, she made her way to the C-store on the other side of the large eatery.

She pushed open the doors to the quiet room, made her way through to the counter. Grabbing a King Size Milky Way bar, she paid for it, put the leftover change in the tip cup as always and made her way back out the way she came. This time, however, she paused on her way through the quiet room. She eyed the booth that she and Gina were sitting in, then switched her gaze to the couch. Was it possible to chalk all of this up to a very VERY realistic imagination? Or at least maybe she could pull together the cosplay theory? _Yes, that was it. Cosplayers. _That would explain why neither she nor Gina has bumped into them, or anyone else from FFVIII that decided to join the party.

"Waiting for me?"

Sharon's eyes flashed at the familiarity of that voice, more importantly, the accent. Putting the look of death in her eyes, she turned to face him. "And why in the blue HELL would I be waiting for YOU?"

Flashing another one of those impish grins, Irvine Kinneas quickly grabbed the Milky Way out of her hands and tauntingly waved it. "Maybe you bought this for me to try to make up for the way you snapped at me the other day."

Eyes narrowing, she snatched the candy bar right back out of his hands and shoved it in one of the large pockets of her colorful blue jean jacket. "You fucking wish."

"Wishes are granted from time to time."

"Sorry, I don't think pixies grant wishes to conceited cowboys."

"Then I guess you'll have to make the wish for me, hmm?"

All he got in response to that last remark was a quick flick of a middle finger as Sharon whipped open the door and stormed off.

_The mother fucking shithead. Who in the hell does he think he is... bringing out the bad side of me automatically. _She stormed up the steps to her room, and jammed the key in the door angrily. _So, he still exists. That's nice. _He wouldn't be for long if he kept pissing her off. Slamming the door shut behind her, she took the keys from around her neck and hung them off the edge of dresser and hung her jacket on the back of the chair to the computer. _Oh boy... Stepmania is getting a pounding today. _Double clicking on the icon to the simulator on the desktop, she waited the allotted minute or so it took to load up all of the songs she collected.

Just as it was loading the last song, there was a knock at the door. Wondering if it was Ben from down the hall to give her more anime, she whipped open the door and looked out.

Irvine grinned and tipped his black cowboy hat. "Why, hello again."

Sharon slammed the door in his face.

He smiled to himself and still stood on the other side of door. He figured that would happen. He whistled and gazed down into the lobby below, taking note of how many people seemed to forever be in the lobby, no matter what time of day it was. Catching the glance from a girl sitting at one of the computer stations, he winked. Almost immediately, the girl blushed a deep red and went back to typing. _I still got it. _He caught movement in the corner of his eye, and he turned to see that Sharon had come back out of her dorm and was leaning against the door frame, glaring at him.

"First off... how did you know I was here?"

"Well, your jacket isn't exactly the most inconspicuous thing out there, now is it?"

She sighed. _Damnit, I knew one day I'd be stalked for all the colorful shit I wear. _

"Ok... next question. WHY are you here?"

"I don't usually leave ladies without a formal introduction."

She rolled her eyes. "Save it." She turned to go back in her dorm.

"Do you really want me to do that, Sharon?"

She twitched as she heard her name pass from his lips. Turning around abruptly, she demanded, "How did you know my name?"

Irvine walked forward and tapped the brightly colored name tag on the door. "Judging from your apparent liking of colors, I could draw my own conclusions." He grinned.

Sharon was REALLY starting to hate that grin. As if she didn't despise it enough now. Turning silently, she re-entered her dorm, but instead of letting the door close behind her, she caught it with her hand and stood back to let him enter.

Irvine wasn't expecting this. He was waiting for the flick of the middle finger, some smart-assed comment, and the final slam of the door in his face. Forgetting to cover up his surprise, he stepped into the dorm.

After he was in, Sharon let the door close, and sat down in the chair in front of her computer once more. Irvine pulled the green chair out from under Anne's computer desk and sat opposite from her. He let his eyes drift over the room, and was slightly amused at how different one side of the room was from the other. One could practically draw a line down the center of the room and claim that they were from different dimensions. Her roommate's side was filled with earthy tones, classic posters of things ranging from Ophelia to other modern arts. On the other side, Sharon had her bed sheathed in purple Powerpuff Girls memorabilia, rope lights, and almost anything else that sparkled. He inwardly wondered how two people from different ends of the stick could live together for so long.

After a moment's silence, Sharon looked up and directly at him. "You... cannot be Irvine Kinneas."

_Well, this is different._ He never had anyone directly tell him that he was not who he was. Raising an eyebrow, he replied "How can I not be? I'm here, aren't I?"

_Does he add a grin to EVERY single sentence he completes? _"No... no, no!" Sharon stood up and began pacing the room, temporarily forgetting that someone else was in the room with her. "That's not true. You're a fictional character created by Squaresoft, for god's sake. There is no way that you can tell me that your name coincides IDENTICALLY with that of a ..." she stopped. She didn't want to make the mistake and call out his entire life story, because then she wouldn't be able to explain how she knew all of this. She said too much, as it was. Turning to look at him, she was surprised to see that the laid back look of self-confidence was gone, and all that was left on his face was confusion.

"Umm... I'm fictional? Created by... Squaresoft? The hell?" He suddenly burst out in a fit of laughter. "Oh my, you really had me going there, thinking you were serious. AHAHAA-HEY!" He jumped as Sharon had reached for his trench coat and was now feeling along the inside of it. "What in the...!?!"

"Where's your gun then? Don't you always carry it with you?"

"What the hell are you talking about!?"

"Don't act stupid! You have a gun. You always do."

"You know, I'm seriously beginning to think that you're for real..."

"GOD FUCKING DAMNIT, I AM!"

"You're crazy."

"So? You didn't answer my question."

"Why should I?"

"Because I WANT TO KNOW."

"Well, if you must know, I don't carry it with me. It'd be hell trying to explain why I have a rifle under my trench coat walking around campus, don't you agree?"

Sharon froze. _He admitted he had a ... that means.. what does it mea... he can't have firearms on campus..._ her mind raced as for the first time, she possibly accepted the fact that the whole situation wasn't as impossible as she previously thought.

Still didn't mean that it made any sense.

Leaning in to her ear, he whispered, "Would this be the best time to mention that I'm a professional sharpshooter?"

For once, Sharon was out of witty comebacks. Hell, it would have been nice at that point to know that she has some sort of control over her brain, but it was as frozen as Windows 98 after the "Suspend" key was pushed one too many times. Really taking the time to look at the man sitting in the chair, she began to notice tiny features that couldn't possibly be recreated for any cosplay. _Oh... my god..._

"Umm... am I interrupting?"

Both Sharon and Irvine snapped their heads over to the door, where the other resident Anne was standing uncertainly in the doorway, her long, curly, red hair tied back in a messy ponytail.

That's when Sharon just realized that with her hands still concealed within Irvine's trench coat, that it looked... well, wrong. Straightening up quickly and trying to regain her composure, she still couldn't come up with anything to say.

"Don't worry, I was just leaving." Irvine stood up casually and wheeled Anne's chair back under her computer stand. Putting back on that infamous grin of his, he tipped his hat to Anne, gave a playful glance to Sharon, and left.

After watching the door close behind him, Sharon found her way back to her computer chair and sat down. Anne dropped her book bag on the floor and sat down at her computer, moving the mouse to make the exploding ball screen saver fade away.

"Hmm. He seemed nice."

"Yeah... real nice."


	4. Chapter 4

Gina and Sharon sat at a small table at Einstein Brothers bagels. This was their second time at the place, and they decided to stop in for a moment. They had some things to discuss that made entirely no sense, so they decided to stop in somewhere where they wouldn't be interrupted by anyone they knew.

Picking at the cinnamon roll in front of her, Sharon looked up at Gina. "What exactly do you think is going on here?"

"I have no idea." Gina started peeling the wrapper off of her blueberry muffin. "I don't even know where to start rationalizing."

"I don't think we can seriously rationalize. It's gone beyond all rational thought. I've tried sorting it all out in my head, but every time I start thinking about it, I end up with a headache. It's ridiculous."

"I know! Well... let's start by taking one piece of information at a time. Squall and Irvine are... they exist."

"Correct."

"Now.. let's look at Squall." Gina broke off a corner of the muffin and put it in her mouth. "I don't really know if that's his name, since he hasn't made any effort to introduce himself or anything... but that's proof in itself, in a way."

"But... didn't you say that you didn't see the scar anywhere? How does that figure?"

"Umm... it doesn't. But then again, have you seen Seifer walking around campus?"

"HELLS NO! Have you? Cause if you have, then I'ma start running around looking for an evil sorceress..."

"No... ok ok, push that thought out of your mind. Umm... well, you know one part that sort of makes sense? Rinoa isn't here. Or Selphie. Or Quistis. Or Xu. OR..."

"OK, Ok.. I get your point. But what does that have to do with anything? And how are we to be sure that they aren't here? Just cause we haven't seen them doesn't mean that they don't exist."

Sharon and Gina traded glances at the irony of the last statement.

Gina thought for a second. "Well... ok. I'm just saying, that maybe they do exist, but not in the way that we think they should."

"... meaning?"

"Meaning, that maybe they do exist... but they aren't going to play out exactly like Squaresoft wanted them to. That would explain why Squall has no scar. Maybe he exists, but then Seifer doesn't, so no scar."

"Ok, but what about that fool Irvine? His occupation certainly carried over from the game."

"He could have been kidding."

"But he could not have been, either. We can't go around assuming things, anymore." Sharon protested, licking the icing off of her fingers.

"True... but, so what if he is a sharpshooter? I'm sure that there are many college kids that are sh... ok well, never mind. Even if he is, that would be his business, right? We have to start thinking of them as normal people. If you met someone and they happened to bring up that they shoot people for a living, you wouldn't automatically think they came from a video game, right?"

"I'd call the damn police on their ass."

"... yeah, I would too. But umm... oh shoot, my brain is jumbled."

Sharon shrugged and bit into her cinnamon bun. "Mine has been jumbled, probably long before any of this shit came up, so what's my excuse? But seriously, maybe we should stop thinking about it, at least for awhile, so our brains can have time to rest."

Gina nodded in agreement and continued eating her muffin. Hopefully, nothing else crazy happened between then and the time they got their wits together.

No such luck.

The door to Einstein Brothers whipped open, bringing in a draft of cold air. Seconds later, a guy wearing long blue jean shorts and a black short-sleeved jacket rushed in. Rushing right up to the counter, he pointed at the glass case housing many freshly baked muffins, cookies, and...

"Are those hot dogs?"

The person behind the counter smile brightly, preparing the pitch. "Yes sir, they are. They're our finest bagel style, wrapped in a..."

"OK! I want five."

The cashier blinked as if she couldn't have possibly heard correctly. "Five?"

"No... never mind..." He seemed to be thinking it over, then his eyes lit up. "Make that eight. I didn't see the three hidden behind the others."

Gina dropped her muffin back on its plate in surprise. _Oh my god... it can't be..._

Sharon, on the other hand, wasn't surprised by much anymore, and continued to eat her cinnamon roll, stifling a sigh of defeat.

Gina watched as the blonde haired guy grabbed all of the hotdogs, paid for them, and moved over to a table not far where they were sitting. _The tattoo! It's still there! _Gina was pleased to see that that part of him wasn't altered by reality. Or lack thereof, depending on which way one wanted to look at it.

Sharon looked up at Gina. _Oh dear, she's going to start blushing in a minute. _Seeing as though nothing could possibly affect her anymore, she put down what was left of her cinnamon roll, wiped her fingers with a napkin, and turned around in her seat.

"Hey... aren't you cold?"

The blonde dude looked up in surprise. "Well... actually, no. I know it seems weird, but I don't really feel it." He grinned sheepishly.

"Wow. That's amazing. I'm freezing my ass off and I'm wearing fleece and jeans. Hey, why don't you come over here and join us?"

Gina spazzed and hit Sharon on the arm. "What the hell are you doing?!" she whispered fiercely. Her brain wasn't going to take any more of this, and Sharon was sitting there acting as if she just INVITED more insanity into their lives.

She shrugged. "Calling him over? Look, we can't avoid him, and we have no reason to be spazzing out anymore, so... might as well take it as it comes, right?" Sharon looked up and smiled warmly as the guy pulled up a chair and dumped all his hot dogs on the table. "So, what's your name?"

"Zell." He shoved half a hot dog in his mouth.

"Zell Dincht??" Gina blurted.

Zell looked over at her in surprise. "Yep! How'd you know?"

"Oh... she's psychic sometimes." Sharon offered with a grin.

"Really? That's sweet!"

"I know!"

"WHAT?" Gina flinched as Sharon kicked her sharply under the table.

Putting the last bit of the roll in her mouth, Sharon continued the conversation. "Now that you mention it, I can understand why you might not be able to feel the cold. When I ran cross-country a few years back, we ran in thin shorts and tops, in the snow. I guess it's a part of conditioning."

"Yeah!" Zell finished off another hot dog and picked up another one. "Since I'm trained in all sorts of different martial arts techniques, my body has put up with harsher things than 25 degree weather. Although I suppose I should at least dress in warmer clothes."

"Martial arts?" Sharon's eyes widened in a believable shock, even though she already knew almost everything about him. "Awesome! What are you trained in?"

He paused in eating for a second to think. "Umm... well, there's karate, tae kwon do, jeet kun do..." he shrugged and laughed. "Ah, there's so many I can't hardly remember myself."

Sharon snuck a glance over to Gina, who hasn't made any effort to participate in the conversation, or continue eating her blueberry muffin since Zell appeared. "Well, that sure is an interesting tattoo you have there."

"Everyone says that. I guess it's true, because you don't see many people willing to get a tattoo on the side of their face. But I dunno... I guess I just liked it, and I wanted to do something that nobody else has done before."

"Well, I'm sure you attract tons of attention because of it, huh?"

"No, not really. Well, not from the opposite sex, that is. Not with that guy around."

"What guy?"

Zell pointed one of his hot dogs out of the window behind him. Sharon moved her head to look out and was mortified to see that Irvine was outside, surrounded by a flock of college girls. "Aww, SHIT. Hide me."

Gina blinked as if just waking up. "What? Why?"

"That conceited asswipe is outside. Hide me!"

"You mean Irvine? He's not an asswipe... he's cute." Gina started getting a far away look in her eyes and she stared off into space.

"Well, yeah, you can have him. I'm out." Sharon breezed out of the cafe and darted the long way around Mackinac Hall so as not to be noticed (once again) by her bright jacket.

Zell raised an eyebrow. "Well, now that's a first. A girl running away from Irvine."

Gina swallowed and got up the courage to speak. "You know him?"

"Yeah, we've talked a couple of times... all the other times we get interrupted by a girl asking for his number or something. It's insane." Shaking his head with a smirk on his face, he bit into yet another hot dog.

"Yeah... I can see why. But don't worry, I think you're cute too." Gina paused. _Did I just say that out loud? Oh hell..._

Zell's blue eyes brightened. "You really think so? Gee, thanks! I was beginning to feel a bit inferior for a moment there."

Gina smiled and watched Zell get right back to devouring all those hot dogs. Glancing outside, she saw Irvine pretending to bat away all of the attention he was getting, but she knew he loved it. Taking a bite of her now remembered blueberry muffin, she sighed. _Maybe all of this doesn't make any sense, but at least I can say that GVSU isn't as boring as it used to be._


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N:** Many thanks to QueenAdreena for her leaving the very first review! It gives me hope that there is at least one other person willing to read this monstrosity, hehe.

* * *

Slipping into the booth, Sharon set down her tray of Mexican food and took off her jacket, revealing a black sweatshirt with the Lisa Frank logo on it. It had been awhile since she and Gina sat down to eat in the "quiet room". Lately, it's been anything less than quiet, with groups of students crowding the booths and every available table, studying for exams. Of course, this didn't stop them from having their daily long hour talks.

Gina came up and sat in her usual place opposite her friend, and handed her a fork. "You forgot the silverware," she said with a grin, setting her own tray with a salami and bacon sandwich down.

Sighing and rolling her eyes, Sharon took the fork appreciatively. "Thanks. I always forget the necessities, but never the food."

After a few moments of silence while they began to dissect their plates, Sharon spoke up again. "So... any word on Squall? Wait... is that even his name?"

"Yeah, that's his name. His room is on the other end of the hallway in Swanson. Ya know, the hallway with the big laundry room on the first floor." Gina bit into her sandwich. "I just saw his name on the door."

"WHAT? How the hell... did you walk around Swanson until you found out where his room was?"

Gina blushed slightly. "NO! I sorta knew what hallway he was in before that... but anyways, you'll never guess who his roommate is. It's Zell."

"Oh my god... hyper-as-hell Zell? How does Squall put up with him?"

"I have no idea. There haven't been any signs of blood on the walls yet, so they're coping, however they do it."

"That's good. Cause I swear, I'd have to sneak me in some tranquilizer darts or something to sedate his ass... aww, SHIT!" Sharon cursed as water from the chicken and the salsa dripped down her sleeve from her fajita. "Why do I ALWAYS forget to let this sucker drain BEFORE I try to bite into it?"

"Because you never think before you act." Gina looked up from her sandwich at the third voice just in time to see Irvine casually slide into the booth next to Sharon, much to her dismay.

"WHAT... who invited YOU?"

"Why, I always invite myself, ma'am."

"...Ugh, you're an ass."

"You asked me a question, all I did was answer."

"Don't talk to me."

"Fine, then I'll talk to Gina."

"Don't call her by that name. You're not worthy."

"Oh, and you are?"

Sharon growled and focused all of her attention on the plate in front of her. "Bitchass." She stabbed her Spanish rice violently.

Gina just sat across from them, eating her sandwich. Truth be told, the situation at hand was so hilarious that it took everything within her power not to laugh, because then Sharon would REALLY be pissed off, then. "Hey look, isn't that Squall?" Gina looked up towards the door, hoping to deflect any more conflict between the two.

Irvine raised his eyebrows and turned around in the seat. "Why, it sure is. Let me try to get him over here." Putting two fingers in his mouth, he let out an ear-piercing whistle.

Squall, along with quite a few other people in the room, turned towards the booth quizzically.

"Hey, Mr. Antisocial, get over here! There's room for one more."

Sighing in defeat, Squall made his way over to the booth slowly and sat down in the booth next to Gina with his hands in his pockets.

Gina really did want to eat her sandwich, but she didn't think it would be possible then, with Squall sitting about an inch away from her. She stared down, admiring the hem of her favorite orange hoodie, taking note of a few loose threads. Coughing slightly, she reached over to her large cup of Slice and took a sip. _Oh please, PLEASE don't let me make an ass of myself now... _

Irvine looked at Sharon still stabbing her plate, Gina gulping down her pop and turning the lightest shade of pink, and Squall just sitting there looking bored as ever, with his hands in his pockets. Oh, what the happy bunch THEY were.

"Oh come on, don't tell me the same cat that got Squall's tongue got the rest of ya'lls too?"

Silence.

Sinking in his seat in exasperation, he tried again. "Alright, so if nobody ELSE will start a conversation, then I guess I have to be the one to do it, huh?"

Unconcerned shrug from Sharon, a still apparently thirsty Gina, and a blank stare from Squall greeted him.

_Geez. What is WITH everyone today? _"So Squall, Zell told me that you're a part of the sword fighting club. How is it?"

Not really expecting anyone to be talking to him, Squall blinked in surprise. "It's alright."

Gina finally detached her lips from her pop, entranced by his voice. "Wow, really? That's cool! Hey Sharon, isn't Anne in that club, too?"

"Umm, yeah, she is... or at least, she should be." Sharon said, looking up from her abused plate of food. "She has sword practice every Tuesday... have you noticed a girl with long curly red hair at your practices?"

Squall nodded. "Yeah."

"Yep, that would be her. Of course, I believe she's just in charge of training the less experienced people in the club, so I don't think you'd be working with her." Sharon bit into her fajita.

Irvine looked at her. "How would you know? You've seen him handle a sword before?"

Gina took in a sharp breath. _Oh shit. _Yeah, they've seen him handle a sword before... on a TV screen with the Playstation controller in hand, cursor over the "Attack" command.

"Oh... well... he just looks like the type of guy who knows how to hold his own, is all." Sharon quickly covered, glancing quickly at Gina, who gave a short sigh of relief.

Squall looked off the side of the table in time to see Zell come out of nowhere, pull a chair up to the booth, and immediately folded his arms laid his head on the table.

"Whoa dude... you look like you've just been robbed." Irvine eyed the normally hyper blonde.

"I HAVE!" Zell wailed into the table. "I can't believe the wacky hours Einstein Brothers has. I show up there and they had just closed about 5 minutes ago. I wanted a hot dog."

Squall rolled his eyes. "You can wait until tomorrow. It's not the end of the world."

Zell looked up tearfully. "Yeah well, tell my stomach that." As if on cue, his stomach gave a fairly large growl. Everyone, for the exception of Squall, laughed as Zell covered his stomach with a hand, trying to make it stop growling. Gina, despite her previous nervousness, was kind of geeked that she was chilling and eating with none other than people from the FFVIII crew, no matter how wacky it seemed to work out.

"Well, well, well... what do we have here?"

Shoving the last of her fajita in her mouth, Sharon looked around the table to see who made the remark. Slightly puzzled when she found that nobody sitting there had made the comment, she nearly spit out her fajita when she saw the usually emotionless eyes of Squall burn with nothing other than pure hatred. Following the glare, she looked up at a tall figure with short-cropped blond hair and a scornful smirk played across his face. _Oh... shit._

Gina let out a slight whimper. She swallowed carefully, trying to suppress the immediate urge to bowl over everyone and run away. Far away.

"What are you doing here, Seifer?" Squall hissed, his glare never faltering.

"Oh, just wondering if you were ready for the festival this weekend, _Puberty Boy_."

This time, Sharon DID choke on her fajita. _Puberty Boy? Oh jesus, this is bad. Real bad. _She looked up at Gina, and all she was doing was staring back at her, her eyes wide in terror.

"I know I am. The question is, are YOU ready?"

"Heh. Since I don't waste my time hanging around a chicken-wuss and a cowboy, I'm ALWAYS ready."

_Oh, he should talk. _Sharon chugged her root beer in an effort to clear her throat. _He hangs around people like Fujin and Rajin... usually._

Zell's head shot up from the table. "WHAT DID YOU CALL ME?" He started, face turning red.

Irvine placed a hand on Zell's arm in an effort to calm him down, and looked up at the cold-eyed man. "Look, let's not start anything. Coming up to us like that was uncalled for. So, if you have nothing else to say, I suggest you leave." He said calmly, but firmly.

Seifer glanced warily at Irvine, and gave another smirk. "No problem. I have better things to do with my time, anyway." Moving his eyes back towards Squall, he gave no indication that he was affected by the waves of negativity glinting from his rival's eyes. "I do hope that you'll be prepared." With that, he turned and walked off, his heels giving ominous clicks across the wood floor.

An eternity of silence lapsed directly afterward.

Zell slammed a fist into the table angrily, causing everyone's drinks to go flying over. "Who the HELL does he think he IS? Calling me a chicken-wuss... he gets me so MAD!"

Righting her drink, Sharon wiped her mouth with a napkin and placed it on her tray. "Let's go kick his ass. Son of a bitch makes Irvine over here look like Jesus. I'll borrow Anne's sword from the dorm and we'll bash his brains out."

Sharon and Zell both shot to their feet at the same time, only to get pulled down by Irvine.

"What in Hyne's name do you think you two are going to accomplish! He's arrogant, and trying to show him up will only feed his sick ego. And you," he scolded, looking from Zell to Sharon, "shouldn't even start anything you know you can't finish. He has the potential to be a very dangerous character."

"SO FUCKING WHAT? You ever seen a Detroit bitch go postal? No, I don't think so, because most people who have don't live to tell the damn tale. And don't TELL me that I can't finish shit that I start, because if you want proof that I can kick ass, then I'll start with yours."

Gina cleared her throat shakily. "Umm, Sharii, maybe you should follow his advice. I don't even want to think of what may happen to you if you get up in Seifer's face."

Zell folded his arms stubbornly. "Well, I'm STILL going to show him up one day."

"Whaddya mean, one day? Make that day today! LET'S TRIUMPH, AND POUR PEPSI OVER HIS DECAYING CARCASS!" Sharon shot to her feet again.

"YEAH!" Zell lifted a fist into the air.

"NO! Stop being so loud and SIT. DOWN." Irvine yanked Sharon back down in the seat, and waved his hand for Zell to do the same. "Damn, you two attract so much attention..."

Sharon pulled her arm away from Irvine. "... Not as much attention as I'm going to attract when I bust you in your head."

Gina sighed exasperatingly. "Sharii-chan, Zell, PLEASE, just get a grip! This IS the quiet room, you know."

Zell and Sharon opened their mouths to retort something back, when Squall abruptly got up from the booth, and exited the room.

Gina's shoulders sagged. "Aww man, now see what you did?"

"Hey, don't blame us, he's always like that." Zell retorted as he went back to resting his head on his arms on the table.

Gina just sighed again and massaged her temples. The entire situation had gone from weird to worst. Seifer Almasy had reared his egotistical head. And what was this whole thing that was supposed to be going down over the weekend? There were lots of questions to be asked, but no one around to answer them.


	6. Chapter 6

"SHIT mother fucker." Sharon exclaimed as she got defeated once again on Dead or Alive 2. She'd been furiously tapping the PS2 controller, trying to get every combo off, every parry perfectly executed, but all she ended up doing was gradually worse than what she did before, and usually effortless motions were taking the most excruciating energy out of her. Throwing down the controller in disgust, she calmed herself a little bit before picking up the phone and dialing a familiar number.

"Hello?"

"Hey, Gina! What's up?"

On the other end of the line, Gina shifted so she could sit down at her computer comfortably and still be able to talk on the phone. "Oh, nothing much. I was just about to watch some more Kodocha, since I'm bored out my mind."

"Oh. Tiffany's not there to entertain you?" Sharon let out a chuckle.

"Please. She's here, but she's just about to take a shower, so I won't have to hear her talk for a half hour about her dogs this time. Hey, wanna come over?"

"Sure! I haven't been over there in awhile, and I need something to do. I've been playing DOA2 so much that I'm beginning to suck at it. That's just sad. Lemme just get my boots and coat on, and I'll be right over."

"Kay! Bai!"

Sharon hung up the phone and starting pulling on her new combat boots. Walking over to the TV to cut off the game, she looked up to gaze outside at the thick blanket of snow covering the campus. _Yeah... the place looks beautiful from inside... but when you get outside... _she let out a sigh as she thought of just how cold the unrelenting winter wind would be as soon as she stepped outside of her living center. Turning away from the window, something caught the corner of her eye. Glancing back to the outside, she saw a figure sitting at the edge of the small gorge amidst all of the trees. Squinting a little bit, she noticed the tale tell black cowboy hat. _Irvine._

A grimace immediately came over her face and she rolled her eyes. Sharon had been running around for what seemed like forever and a day, avoiding his annoying behind. Now he just had to be in partial view of the walkway she had to take to get to Gina's. Letting out an exasperated sigh, Sharon just grabbed her Lisa Frank jacket and keys and walked out of the door.

Minutes later, she was walking at her usual fast pace down the walkway. _If he says a WORD, I'll ignore him, and keep walking. He will not make my day any worse. Nope. Be invisible. _Despite herself, she found herself glancing over in his direction as she walked down the winding path. Slowing down her pace, she gazed at his figure sitting down in the snow, looking out towards... nothing in particular. Not like there was much outside of Grand Valley besides trees and cornfields. Surprised to see that the usual flock rabid teenybopper college girls didn't surround him, she found herself walking across rocks and grass to get where Irvine was sitting.

"So, Mr. Sex Symbol got away from the streaming hordes of available GVSU females. I'm impressed." Sharon raised an eyebrow and clapped sarcastically.

Still gazing out into the distance, he cracked his infamous grin. "Yeah well, even I get tired of being so sexy."

Rolling her eyes in disgust at his usual cockiness, she fired back, "Oh, please. You better get it in your head that you are not the only sexy male walking around this campus."

"Oh, so you _do _think I'm sexy. I got you to admit something."

Narrowing her eyes, it took everything she had to not break off a piece of one of the many trees surrounding her and beat what little brain he had out onto the snow. Closing her eyes for a moment to regain composure, she decided not to take the sarcastic approach. _Heh, he always wins because he knows how to push my buttons. Very well... I'll be civil. _Settling down in a spot next to him, she sat with her knees pulled up to her chin and her arms wrapped around her legs to try to keep warm. "Aren't you cold? That trench coat of yours probably doesn't give that much insulation against this frigid weather."

Irvine glanced back at her, surprised that she was not cussing at him for once. "And you're suddenly so worried about my well-being. Want me to be in top shape so you can contemplate a clean death, huh?"

Sharon glared back at him. "Well, ex_cuse_ me. You park your ass at the edge of this damn gorge all by yourself, in the damn snow, and stare off all Squall-like in the distance so bad that you don't even blink when you see my brightass jacket in your peripheral vision? You'd scare anyone enough to see if you were ok in this state. But you know what? Once again, fuck you. And no, I would not be happy to be obliged, and if my watch happened to say a half past never before I even got the _twinge _to feel sorry for you ever again, it would be too goddamn soon." With that, she got up briskly and stalked off.

"I'm always alone, you know."

Stopping abruptly, Sharon turned around with the most perplexed look on her face. "And where the hell did THAT come from? You're surrounded by hordes of people almost every damn day, and you just up and claim you're alone. Please."

Not bothering to turn around to face her, Irvine kept his gaze in front of him, and a light smirk brushed across his face. "Aren't you narrow-minded, not to know that you can be surrounded by millions of people every day, and still never feel so alone."

Normally, this response would have gotten him one of the most stabbing stream of explicitives, but Sharon was distracted at his sudden change in demeanor. The faint smile was still there, but his eyes were a huge contrast to the usual playful, mischievous sparkle they always held. Even though she couldn't help but be pissed off at almost everything he did, Sharon always had the weakness of seeing people in any kind of emotional pain.

"Holding the occupation that I do, I'm pretty much forbidden to have any sort of a close relationship with anyone." He turned his head to look back at her. "Ever stop to think how much that would suck?"

Sharon's expression turned serious as she continued to see his blue eyes grow ever the more melancholy. "... then why do you flirt as much as you do? You'd think you'd be more like Squall if you weren't allowed meaningful contact with anybody."

He shrugged, turning back to the ever-long grove of trees. "It's nothing more than just playful flirting. Every girl that has ever approached me knew that it would never get past flirting, either because I was surrounded by so many other girls, or they already knew from the start that I was just playing around."

Sharon fixed her gaze slowly down to the tips of her boots, which were now spotted with the large flakes of snow that had just begun to fall from the sky. "Do you ever... regret the road that you decided to take in life? Wish that you could just give it all away, just for the chance to be, well... a normal guy?"

Irvine silently reached out to let a snowflake rest in the palm of his hand, and watched it melt slowly into a minuscule puddle of slush. "Every day."

She didn't have to look up to see his expression; she already could feel how much he was hurting. How come she never noticed this before? She was usually right on target when it came to determining whether someone is being fake, or cloaking their true feelings under a shawl. _Maybe because I was too busy being pissed off at him that I didn't see it. _Almost flushing with embarrassment at how childishly she responded to all of his attempts at conversation (whether they were civil or not), she glanced up to see that Irvine was on his feet now, but he had not stopped facing the wide gorge in front of him. At that moment, she realized just how much of a solitary being he really was. _This is really becoming an angst-fest, one that Gina would probably be cheesing at if it wasn't so real._

Closing the palm that held the snowflake, he lifted his gaze to the treetops. "Of course, nothing I can do to change it now. I've made my decision, and I'll be damned if I throw it away just because I feel a little depressed every now and then."

"... and you told me all of this... why? And if it was supposed to be a really deep pickup line, you're going to find a rock up your ass." she added, trying to lighten the mood a bit.

Irvine paused. In reality, he didn't know why he had told her all of that. Sure, sometimes he used it to woo girls, but he found himself almost rattling off his entire life story to one that seemed to despise his very existence. Of course, he was partly to blame for that, always seeming to find ways to tick her off.

Sharon stepped back up beside Irvine and placed a hand on his shoulder. "Look, you don't have to remain this way. I'm sorry for being such a bitch to you before... you just came off as being the most stuck up..." she stopped herself before she started demeaning him again. "Ok, well anyways, I didn't know all of this. I should have been able to sense something, but the fact is, that you're the better bullshitter, and congratulations. Whoever you work for... they can tell you not to do this or not to do that... but you have to remember that you are in control of your own destiny, your own life. If you ever did decide to just go off and get married or something, there's nothing they could do about it, so fuck them! Do your own thing, do what makes YOU happy. Once you truly take that concept into consideration, everyone else you meet in your entire lifetime will have no choice but to recognize your self authority, and follow along if they don't want to be left behind."

Irvine turned his head to look at Sharon's face, to make sure that she wasn't doing a damn good job of pulling his leg. Fierce determination and concern shone brightly in her brown eyes, and she seemed to forget about the cold wind that whipped through her unbuttoned jacket and tousled her dark hair about her face. Completely turning around, he opened his mouth to say something in return, but instead, a chuckle came out.

Sharon's eyebrows immediately knitted in confusion at his unexpected reaction. "What... in the... why..."

At this point, Irvine was almost on the ground in laughter. Wiping tears from his eyes, he caught his breath long enough to say "MAN! I've never seen you look so serious before! I don't know why that struck me so funny, but it DID! And now I can't... stop... LAUGHING!"

Blinking in disbelief at the nearly hysterical cowboy in front of her, Sharon clenched her fists and did the first thing that popped into her mind.

She kicked him. Hard.

Certainly not expecting her to land a fierce kick square to his chest, he flailed backwards in surprise, and disappeared over the side of the gorge.

Not having time to feel bad about her sudden burst of violence, as soon as the kick was executed, the leg that was grounding her slipped, and she also went sliding down into the gorge. Not knowing which was up or down, Sharon reached out frantically, trying to grab hold of any one of the trees that she thought she passed as she tumbled uncontrollably. All that was gained from this were severely scratched hands that were already stinging from the cold. After what seemed like a millennium of tumbling, she finally came to a rest near the bottom of the snow filled gorge. In a halfhearted push up, she lifted her body from the ground and tried to get her bearings straight. She was still reeling from the long tumble that she took, and she blinked repeatedly to try to keep her head from spinning. Half wondering how in the world her glasses stayed on through all of that, she squinted through the snow on her lenses to spot Irvine's cowboy hat dangling from a nearby tree branch. Not half comprehending what could have happened, she started to stagger her way over to the tree.

Reaching out and grabbing her wrist, Irvine turned Sharon around to face him. She looked flustered, half from falling so far and half from being grabbed from behind, and the snow matted on her unseasonable jacket and dripping off of her glasses. "Are you alright?" he asked, in a genuine voice, looking down at the scraped hand of the wrist that he was holding.

Being caught off guard for the second time that day, he didn't expect her other hand to come up and leave a stinging slap to his left cheek. Letting go of her wrist and stepping back a bit, he began to wonder how many people heard that slap reverberate across the campus... and how many more heard the words that tumbled out of her mouth immediately following the slap.

"Don't TOUCH ME!! How DARE you laugh after I gave you genuine advice, after feeling CRUSHED... FOR YOU!!"

Irvine opened his mouth to mention that she was the one that kicked him down the gorge, and if anybody was entitled to be mad, it would be him. But the look she shot him as soon as the thought passed his mind froze his body colder than Allendale's winter weather ever could.

"Don't even OPEN YOUR GOD DAMN MOUTH. Don't speak to me EVER AGAIN. I have never felt so humiliated in my ENTIRE LIFE until this day when you decided to LAUGH OFF my emotions?! I bet everything was just a LIE so you could just get me worked up. And boy, you really did it." Sharon shook, not only from the cold weather and the snow that was now penetrating her colorful clothes, but also from pure anger.

"Now wait a minute, what I told you wasn't a lie! How could you say that?" Irvine countered, feeling a bit angry himself. One of the first times he's ever told someone how he felt inside and she blows up and claims it's a lie.

"How could you LAUGH at me?!"

"I was laughing at your EXPRESSION, not at the advice or the kindness that you showed me! Hyne, get a GRIP! That's no reason to kick someone down a god damn gorge!"

"I HATE YOU!" Sharon screamed it as loud as her lungs could muster, in hopes that it broke through to his thick skull. She watched Irvine freeze as the harsh words passed from her lips, as the full effect of her anger and frustration hit him. He was actually at a loss for words, hell, his brain didn't have a chance to transmit any kind of emotion. At this point, Sharon should've been glad that she pierced him straight through with that last statement, but instead she immediately regretted what she said. Not really knowing what to do, she turned on her heel and walked in what she thought was the direction of Swanson. She still had Gina's dorm to get to, and her best friend was probably wondering what was taking her so long to get there.

Grabbing her wrist again, Irvine forced her around to face him again. "Don't you walk away from me like that." Blinking incredulously for a second, Sharon moved to deal him another bitchslap from hell, but he caught her arm as it swung around. Going into complete offensive mode, Sharon pushed as hard as she could in an effort to push him backwards. Even though he was caught off guard by the amount of strength the slender girl had, he found his footing and prevented himself from being flung all the way down to the bottom. Getting even more frustrated, she started flailing and kicking his legs to try to make him fall.

Irvine had finally had it with being abused both physically and verbally by this irrational girl. Using his full strength, he pushed forward and kicked one of her legs out from under her, causing her to land pretty hard on her back. Pinning her legs and arms to the ground to ensure that she would not be battering him anymore, he took a much-needed breather. "Damn girl... you can be one feisty little bitch."

Sharon looked up at the face of this _boy_ who was pinning her down. _He did NOT... just call me a bitch. Oh no he didn't. _Before she could even retort an answer, it was her that got cut off that time.

"Save the profanity. You don't hate me enough to even half mean the words you said to me."

"... WHO ARE YOU TO TELL ME..."

"What, that you don't hate me? You like me so much that you get frustrated with yourself and you take it out on me. That's not very nice, you know."

"... get the hell off of me RIGHT NOW..."

"Why do you suddenly look so threatened? I didn't just call you out on your feelings, now did I?

"Shut up, arrogant asshat."

"Asshat?"

"Asshat."

"I love you, too."

"WHAT? You've lost it."

"Hmm, I think you've lost it… over me, that is."

"... go to hell."

"You know, there's one thing you must always remember about me." Irvine released one of Sharon's wrists to gently run a finger along the side of her face.

Suddenly losing the ability to control her vocal cords, all she could do was look into his deep blue eyes. She hated him... why wasn't he getting the picture? Was he really as stupid as he looked? And why the hell couldn't she yell loud enough to make her point?

"I _always _get my target." With that, he leaned down and gently placed his lips upon her forehead.


	7. Chapter 7

Hanging up the phone after speaking to Sharon, she looked over at Tiffany who was gathering up all her stuff to go take a shower.

"Hey Tiff, would you mind making sure you got some clothes on when you get out of the bathroom? Sharii's coming over to watch some anime."

Tiffany gave a heavy sigh and grabbed her flip-flops. "Ya'll and that anime. I swear, you guys need a life."

Gina sighed herself, already getting annoyed. "Just make sure you got something on, ok?"

Tiffany disappeared in the bathroom and shut the door.

Relieved at the silence that greeted her once Tiffany went into the bathroom, she opened up Windows Media Player and unplugged her headphones. _Let me see... which episode did Sharii leave off of on Kodocha? _Browsing through the collection of CD's she recently got off of Ebay, she settled on just starting from Episode 22 and going from there. Even if they had already happened to see it, they could still watch the same episodes over and over again and laugh like it was the first time they've seen it.

Hearing a knock at the door, Gina's eyes brightened. It had been awhile since Sharon had been over to Swanson, and it would be nice to have someone in the room that she could actually talk to without getting annoyed. "YOU CAN COME IN!" She called out, slipping the correct CD into her computer.

Looking over at the doorway, Gina almost had a heart attack when she saw Squall in the doorframe instead of Sharon. She should have noticed something was up when the door didn't just whip open after the knock, because that's what Sharon usually does... but hey, it had been a while.

And right now, she wasn't sure what to make of this situation at hand. _What the hell is he doing... in my dorm..._

Stepping into the dorm completely and letting the door close behind him, he stood by the sink uneasily. "... do you have Math 110?"

Forcing her mouth to open, she croaked out "Uh... yeah, I do."

"I was wondering if you could help me with a particular math problem."

Gina's eyebrow raised slightly. _Squall... asking for help? I think hell froze over. _"What chapter is it in?"

"Chapter 7."

_Oh crap. I don't think I went to class enough to know what kind of problems were even IN Chapter 7.. _Shrugging the thought off, she was determined not to let this kind of opportunity pass. How many people could say that they helped out Mr. Silent-Angst? Remembering that he was still standing next to the sink, she jumped up and grabbed Tiffany's computer chair. "Here, have a seat and I'll see what I can do for ya." she said as she dumped all of Tiffany's crap on the floor.

Sitting down slowly, Squall glanced around the dorm casually. "Are you sure your roommate won't mind?"

"Oh, Tiff? Naw, she's in the shower right now anyways, and it'll be hours before she gets out." Picking up her math book, she turned to where she hoped Chapter 7 was. "Now, what kind of problem are you having trouble with?"

Much to her relief, he could point out exactly what part of the problem he didn't quite understand, and Gina used what she learned from Mr. Givens' Calculus class back in high school to work out the problem efficiently. All the while she was helping him dissect the math problem, she kept glancing up at him, watching his expression as he figured out how to work it. She couldn't help but wonder if she should ask him about this thing that was to go down this weekend, or just leave it alone. _Gina, stop daydreaming. _She blinked as if to wake herself up from a dream, and was surprised to see that not only had Squall finished the problem, but also three others just like it while she was off in la la land.

Putting away her math book and calculator, Gina tried to come up with a way to maybe get him to open up or something, since he was already here. _It must've taken a lot for him to come down here and ask ME of all people for help... _she sat up straight in her computer chair and looked over. "Hey, do you watch any anime?"

Squall raised an eyebrow. "Anime?"

"Yeah... Japanese animation... cartoon sort of thing."

He paused. "... I don't watch cartoons."

"But this is different! Many more interesting themes come out of anime than just plain stupidity like... Bugs Bunny or something like that. I have some on my computer right now called Kodomo no Omocha. Want to watch an episode and see if you'd like it?"

"... no thanks." Squall rose from the chair and started to leave.

"Please? Just one episode. I guarantee that you'll be laughing so hard at it... promise." _Promise? Oh, heLLO, earth to Gina! Mr. Silent-Squall isn't going to LAUGH, it's a miracle that he said more than 2 words to you! _But Gina just wanted him to stay, because maybe she could get him to say more about himself, or SOMETHING.

She held her breath as he paused and looked back at her quizzically, hoping and PRAYING that she wouldn't get yet another "whatever" from him, even though she had a one in a billion chance of NOT getting that response.

"...alright."

Gina checked to see if he was sane. "Alright?"

"I'm curious, now." Squall sat back down in Tiffany's computer chair, and faced Gina's computer screen.

She could barely contain herself as she shakily moved the mouse up to File on the menu. _YES! I got him to stay! Now.. which episode should I pick? Should it be the one where Sana falls from the gym ceiling, or the one where Hayama called Tsuoshi-kun's father a bald asshole, or maybe the silly glasses episode... _Stopping her brain from spinning, she realized that the best episode to start off with would probably just be the first episode. After all, he wouldn't be able to understand WHY Sana was jumping from a gym ceiling, or the bald asshole part, and let alone the silly glasses. Finding Kodocha Episode 1, she maximized the Windows Media Player screen and sat a distance back from screen so Squall would have a chance to see.

Even though the episode was hilarious as it had always been, Gina kept her cool and refused to laugh at the parts that would normally have her rolling on the floor. Checking over periodically at his expression, she was half relieved to see that it wasn't the blank stare he gave almost everything else, but the one he used when watching GTA in the lobby the other day. But the rest of his expression... he could've been watching a documentary of how George Bush came to be in office or something, the way it stayed neutral.

By the end of the episode, Gina was really concerned. _What the hell... is he really THAT drawn into himself that he can't LAUGH at stuff that's obviously funny? _She reached over and clicked the stop button on the computer, and turned to look at him. "Uhh... how'd you like it?"

Squall didn't even blink. Or twitch. Or move. It was if she was looking at a picture of him instead of an actual person. Beginning to wonder if he fell asleep with his eyes open, she suppressed the urge to wave her hand in front of his face. Blinking in confusion, she moved forward and dared to tap his shoulder, but then she noticed that his shoulders were shaking. Stepping back in surprise, Gina took in the scene.

Squall had stopped trying to contain his laughter, and he just burst out in a hearty laugh that he hadn't done in... well, years. Putting a hand to his forehead as he laughed, he was surprised to see that tears were strolling down his cheeks. _How long as it been since I laughed?_

All Gina could do is stand there and gape at him. If she started to analyze the irony of this situation, her brain would explode, she just knew it. So she just took in how much cuter he looked when he laughed (since this would probably never happen again, she reasoned), and was beginning to laugh herself when there was a knock at her door.

Directly after the knock, the door opened, and in walked Sharon. Gina got her second shock of the day when she saw clumps of snow stuck in her friend's hair, and slush dripping off of her jacket. Her eyes widened even more when the door opened a second time, and Irvine walked in, looking just as wrecked as Sharon.

She just gaped. "... What HAPPENED?"

Sharon rolled her eyes and shook her head. "Ask him."

Irvine grinned and tipped the edge of his hat to Gina, causing a mound of snow to fall on the ground. "Oops..."

Then they both looked past Gina and let their jaws drop to the floor at the sight of Squall Leonhart laughing so hard that his face was red, and his eyes were filled with tears.

"... holy shit. This is a Kodak moment. No, this is a Guinness Book of World Records moment. No, scratch that, it's fucking impossible." Sharon gawked.

Gina started to nod in agreement, when she was distracted by the sound of the door opening again. Only this time it wasn't the dorm door, it was the bathroom door, and Tiffany chose that time to step out of the bathroom. Her arms full with shampoo bottles and a hairdryer... and she was wearing nothing but a yellow towel.

Freeze frame.

Squall abruptly stopped laughing and stared at Tiffany, wide eyed.

Sharon blinked absently at her, not really surprised since she knew how often Tiffany liked to walk around in a half-undressed state.

Irvine half opened his mouth as if to say something, thought against it, and shut it.

Gina however, was the first one to snap out of it, and speak.

"What in the HELL, I TOLD YOU TO COME OUT WITH CLOTHES ON!"

Tiffany looked astonished that Gina would dare attack her right after a shower. "I THOUGHT IT WAS ONLY GOING TO BE SHARON COMING IN HERE!"

"THAT DOESN'T EXCUSE THE FACT THAT YOU DON'T HAVE ANY CLOTHES ON, AFTER I KINDLY ASKED YOU TO PUT SOME ON BEFORE YOU STEPPED OUT OF THE BATHROOM! I'M TIRED OF HAVING THIS ARGUMENT WITH YOU DAY AFTER DAY!"

"WELL, I'M TIRED OF YOU INVITING EXTRA PEOPLE OVER HERE DAY AFTER DAY!"

Gina's eye twitched. _What the hell... _"THIS IS THE FIRST TIME I INVITED ANYBODY OVER IN MONTHS!"

"Hey, can I see that hair dryer right quick?" Sharon cut in.

Tiffany blinked at Sharon as if she grew four heads, then turned back to Gina. "THAT'S NO EXCUSE TO HAVE A DAMN PARTY IN THE DORM WHILE I'M IN THE SHOWER!"

"A PARTY? MORE PEOPLE WOULD BE WALKING THROUGH THAT DOOR IF I WAS THROWING A DAMN PARTY!"

As soon as Gina gestured towards the door to emphasize her point, the door whipped open once again, and Zell hopped in.

"I thought I heard your voice from down the hall, Gina! Guess what I just found out? They're doing a buy two, get one free special going on at the Einstein Brothers Bagels place, and I was coming in to see if you would like to come with me to... IUSDFHADFAHHHHHHHH!" He caught sight of Tiffany out of the corner of his eye, and jumped approximately 10 feet in the air.

Not knowing what to do, especially since there was a new abrupt addition to the room, Tiffany shoved the hairdryer in Sharon's hands, backed up into the bathroom, and slammed the door. The sound of the inside door lock could be heard as it clicked in place.

Irvine turned to Zell. "Man, what'd you scream like that for? I think you hurt her feelings."

Zell shrugged. "Dude, I'm sorry. I just wasn't expecting her to be half naked in my peripheral vision, that's all." He looked past everyone and caught sight of Gina's duffel bag half opened on the floor, revealing part of her vast video game collection. "Oh SWEET! You have Devil May Cry!" Making his way over to the duffel bag, he entertained himself by shuffling through the games.

Sharon plugged the hair dryer into the socket next to the sink and began blow-drying her hair.

Squall, who was feeling pretty awkward, stood and regained his composure. With a glance over at Gina, he moved around everyone in the commotion and slipped out quietly.

Having been the only person noticing Squall's exit, Gina wondered if he would ever be back to watch more Kodocha. _Probably will be, seeing the reaction I got after just the first episode._ Grinning slightly at the thought that she was finally getting him to loosen up, she looked over at Sharon struggling to blow dry the back of her head. After watching her many attempts falter for a while, Irvine stepped over and grabbed hold of the hairdryer. Sharon automatically tried to yank it back, shooting visual death rays at him. He just stood there calmly returning the glare, and soon her expression faltered as she released the hair dryer in silent defeat. Smiling in victory, he proceeded to gently run the dryer through her hair.

If life was an anime, Gina would've fallen on the ground with her feet sticking straight up in the air. She didn't know exactly what was going on, but she knew that something happened between the two of them. Sharon just didn't give into defeat, at least, not that easily. She'd have to interrogate her later.

"DAMN! I ALMOST FORGOT!" Zell jumped up from the little ring of video games surrounding him. "I GOTTA GET MY FREE HOT DOGS BEFORE THEY RUN OUT!" Jumping clear over the pile of games, he sprinted for the door, and grabbed Gina's arm as he opened the door. "C'mon! You gotta go too! You don't need a coat; if you run fast enough, you won't have time to feel it. Let's go!"

Gina laughed as she let herself be dragged out of her dorm. Yeah sure, it was probably 25 degrees outside, but she didn't let herself care, for once. When Zell takes control of the reigns, there is no turning back.


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N: **"Where are the other FFVIII characters?" They'll all be here, no worries. The fic originally wasn't really meant to even get this far, so when it did I had to scrape up some sort of path for it. **Trivia:** Chapters 1 thru 7 were written without any prior knowledge of FFVIII for the exception of a couple of characters and their personas. Yep, that's right; I wrote the first chapters of this fic BLIND. From Chapter 8 and forward, I started writing this again during my second year at college and I had time to actually play FFVIII. Trippy, huh?

* * *

"So, he laughed at Kodomo no Omocha?" Sharon confirmed, balancing the cordless phone between her shoulder and her chin while she deflected oncoming Instant Messages with an Away Message. "Unbelievable. I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me."

"Tell me about it." Gina said on the other side of the line. "At first I thought he was going to cuss me out or something for wasting his time, but I guess it all turned out for the better. He's so cute when he laughs!"

Sharon chuckled. "I bet. You should've took a damn picture, because who knows if that shit's ever gonna happen again."

Gina pouted. "Hey, you never know! I might get lucky again." Then she paused and smiled mischievously. "Speaking of which..."

"... NO, NO NO!" the colorful girl preempted. "Nothing happened. He just got the best of me, that's all."

"YOU DON'T GET AWAY WITH THAT, SHARII-CHAN! I know something happened. It must've been something big too, since you're avoiding telling me."

"It's nothing."

"Don't make me ask Irvine."

"... you wouldn't dare."

"You know how much he loves to hype things up, too."

Sharon rolled her eyes and sighed in defeat. "Man... that's just evil."

"Hey, I'm not evil; just conscious of what I can do." Gina put on her trademark angelic smile, that even though she knew her best friend couldn't see, she knew she was doing it.

"Well... shit happened, and I kicked him down a gorge..."

"A GORGE? And he SURVIVED? Oh, please don't tell me it was that big 40 foot gorge..."

"I wish." Sharon scoffed, propping the sole of her foot up against the desk while curling up more in the slightly uncomfortable plastic chair. "But no, it was the smaller one directly in back of Pew. He was sitting there being all angsty and then when I decided out of the raw goodness of my heart to help him out, he LAUGHS at me. So... yeah. Unfortunately, I hoed myself and fell down there too. But it's okay, because I slapped the shit out of him..."

Gina did a face fault. "SLAPPED? WHY? I didn't know you would actually HIT the poor boy..."

"Oh please, that bitch is not innocent, so don't even make him out to be."

"SHARON HIT WHO? WHO?" Tiffany shouted in the background, in her usually very nosy eavesdropping manner.

Gina frowned and covered the mouthpiece to the phone. "Tiffany, could you PLEASE for the love of GOD stay out of my CONVERSATIONS! It has nothing to do with you."

Tiffany responded with a huff, and turned up the volume to her pink Hello Kitty television.

"... ya know, one day, I would just shove that phone up her ass if she wants to listen so bad." Sharon put in.

"Yeah... although seeing as though it's the only phone we've got, not to mention it's mine, I don't want to have to retrieve the damn thing after I got through doing that." Gina scrunched up her nose. "But anyway... what were we talking about... OH YEAH, Irvine. C'mon, there's more, I know it!"

Sharon swallowed. "Well... I yelled at him and slapped him."

"... and?" Gina prodded.

"... and... I KICKED HIS ASS, that's it."

"... if you kicked his ass he wouldn't have been looking like he did when ya'll appeared in my room the other day."

"...don't tell anyone."

"You haven't told me anything to TELL anyone! Why do I have to pry this out of you!"

"Okay." Sharon took a breath. "He... sorta kinda... uh... kissed me."

The line went dead.

"... oh, hell." Sharon hung up and waited for a few seconds, then when the phone did its usual annoying ring, she picked up again. "Hel-"

"WHAT! HE WHAT! OH MY GOD, YOU'RE SO LUCKY! HOW COME YOU GET TO BE KISSED BY IRVINE AND I DON'T! WHY DID HE DO IT EVEN AFTER YOU ABUSED HIM! I DON'T GET IT! OH MY GOD-"

Sharon held the phone approximately a foot away from her as Gina continued shouting in excitement before chancing to put the receiver back to her ear. "OKAY, FIRST OFF, SHUT UP SHOUTING. IT'S BAD ENOUGH TIFFANY EAVESDROPS ANYWAYS. SECOND OFF, IT'S NOT LIKE WE MADE OUT!" She lowered her own voice. "He just did it to piss me off and to prove that he could continue to taunt me and win. Nothing serious. That kiss on the hand he gave you was more meaningful than what that asshat did to me, and believe me, that will NOT be happening again. He's just got his ass into more deep shit, if anything."

Gina ignored the obvious glances from Tiffany and moved towards the dorm door for added privacy. "... I STILL think that you're lucky. I want a kiss from Irvine..."

"Well, then you'd better hurry up, because his lifetime is on limited warranty." Sharon snapped. Then she changed the subject. "Well, anyways, the real reason I called you up was to tell you that the sword fighting thing that was gonna go on this weekend was canceled."

"Say WHAT? Well, how are we supposed to find out what Seifer was talking about?"

"According to Anne, it was only canceled because the snow is supposed to get really bad. They usually don't bother doing events in the winter, but it seems that they got a good handful of great talent that's itching to be seen, so it's more of a spur-of-the-moment thing. They moved it to next weekend, when the forecast isn't as sucky."

Gina paused. "Yeah... well, what are we gonna do until then?"

"... uh... do homework that was supposed to be due last week?"

"... uh... yeah, right. I know! Let's go to the mall! Since you're actually up before 4pm on a Saturday, we can go!"

Sharon sat up. "Hey, what's that supposed to mean?" She said in false aggravation, then smiled. "Yeah, I know, I sleep in later than Rip Van Winkle. But, oh... just for that... JUST FOR THAT..."

"... what?" Gina's eyes wavered at Sharon's change in voice. She didn't think bugging her about Irvine was going to cause THAT much trouble, but since it did, she was afraid of what her friend was going to do. _And she calls ME evil._

"Dare you to ask Squall and Zell out to the mall with us today."

Gina choked. "WHAT? No..."

"C'mon. If this whole sword club thing distracts us, then you know Squall's probably tearing his hair out about it, too. In his own angsty, silent 'mommy didn't hold me enough' way."

"You're right, I guess... but that doesn't explain why I have to do it."

"You are in the same building, as you so cleverly investigated in earlier circumstances." Sharon devised. "So, it only makes sense that a fellow dormmate to ask them, rather than someone from all the way in Pew asking them. Not to mention you already seem to have made ties with Mr. Leonhart."

"But... but..." the timid girl stuttered, on the verge of extreme panic.

"SO, give Sharii a call when you get done inviting them, okay? Bai bai!"

"But SHARI-" Click. Gina stared at the buzzing receiver in shock. Oh, how she wished Sharon was saying that to her face, because then she could put on her trademark quivering chin trick that could get her out of anything - well, she knew it would work in Sharon's case. Then at least she could convince Sharon to go with her.

But this was a reminder that yes, life is SO not fair.

Gina walked back over to her computer desk and calmly put the phone back in the charger. She eyed Tiffany to make sure she was heavily engrossed in the Golden Girls, then slipped on her favorite pair of flip flops. Yes, she had another quirk that Tiffany and others couldn't understand; she wore flip-flops with socks. To Gina, it was just added comfort, but to everyone else it was just stupid and claimed it eliminated the purpose of the shoes being open-footed. Well, Gina had a response for that, in Squall terms; whatever.

She managed to take almost 8 whole minutes to just get from one hallway to the other, and when she saw the name tags on the door, she stopped to think about what she was doing... which was a bad idea, in her case. Even though Sharon was capable of doing it sometimes, Gina really DID make herself paranoid with the simplest tasks. Maybe that's why she was the queen of making worst-case scenarios for almost every situation, including the current one.

"Okay. What if they're not there. Then I walked all over here for nothing and possibly annoyed people in this hallway for knocking for too long even after knowing that they weren't there." Gina said to herself, pacing slightly. "Then, in a rush to go back to my dorm, I could chance slipping and falling and twisting my ankle, which would hurt. Really bad. So... it's not worth even trying, and Sharii will understand if I explain how it could possibly endanger my health. Yeah. That's it." Gina almost patted herself on the back for an idea well thought, and started back down the hallway, when a cold draft from behind caused her to shiver violently and look behind her.

"Gina?" Zell glanced up in surprise upon realizing who was in the hallway. He had obviously just come from the outside, probably doing a daily jog, as his boyish face was slightly rosy and wind burned. Although both Gina and Sharon were relieved to see that all of the FFVIII characters didn't sport their "usual" clothing all the time, Zell still happened to choose clothing that was a bit... unseasonable for Michigan winter weather. He was wearing a pair of casual black nylon jogging pants that were long enough to halfway cover his favorite pair of red and black sneakers. A black hoodie was draped casually over one shoulder, revealing a white T-shirt with a mystical Chinese dragon on the front.

Gina was horrified to realize that she was discovered in front of his doorway, staring at his well-built figure with her mouth half agape. She hoped she didn't look TOO stupid.

Zell grinned in his usual good-natured way and walked up to her. "Never though I'd see ya here on this part of the hall. Whatcha up to?"

Gina told herself to calm down before she really did something stupid, and coughed once to clear her throat that had mysteriously been clogged with what felt like sandpaper. "Uh... I was uh, looking for you to see... umm... if you would like to go to... the mall. Yeah. The mall. Today. With me and Sharii. Yes." She blushed. _Oh yeah, great conversational skills you got there..._

His eyes lit up immediately. "The mall? SWEET! I heard they have this cool arcade down there, but I haven't been down there yet to check it out. HEY, lemme go see if Squall wants to come too! That guy NEVER gets out enough, I tell ya." Before Gina could protest, he had already shoved his key into the lock on the door and galloped in, leaving Gina no choice but to follow tentatively.

Upon entering, she realized two things; how similar the rooms were to her room, and which side of the room was whose. Zell tossed his hoodie carelessly on his unmade bed, which was littered with tons of other hoodies as well. Gina was fairly excited to see that she and Zell seemed to share the same liking of the color blue, as it was apparent in his bed sheets, comforter, and the small throw rug that was on the floor at the foot of the bed. Other than that, well... Gina had to be careful of where she stepped because there were various magazines littered all over the floor, mostly belonging to the video game genre. Typical posters had been tacked up on the walls around the bed, most of which Gina owned herself.

Zell plopped himself down in front of a sleek looking black laptop on the other side of the room and started tapping. "Oh, you can go ahead and throw whatever on the floor and sit there. Or you could just sit on Squall's bed, since he's a neat freak."

Gina just let out a nervous laugh. _Sit on Squall's bed? I don't think my butt is worthy. _Although she did note that Zell's roommate's side was pretty immaculate, if not somewhat barren. The bare necessities were present in rather drab colors of gray and black, but when she thought about it, she couldn't really picture Squall having anything else in his room besides that. _And his Gunblade case, that is._ Gina let her mind wander as she absentmindedly sat down at the edge of Zell's bed, thinking about whether it even existed. If it did... would it be here? Gina's eyes wandered over to the armoire that wasn't littered with junk and half open and unconsciously started planning a way to sneak a peek in there without either male noticing what she was planning to do.

"Uh... Gina?" Zell said.

She blinked and whipped her head in the blonde's direction with a smile already plastered on her face for cover. "Sorry, what?"

"I was just asking if you wanted anything to drink. Squall may not look like the type, but he keeps a pretty mean collection of carbonated drinks around here."

Gina shook her head politely and refused while keeping a straight face. No WAY was she going to deplete even ONE of his precious soda pop cans, even if it meant she had to continue dealing with the ever growing piece of sandpaper in her throat. To try to keep her nervousness down, she cleared her throat and asked, "Umm, you don't have a computer, Zell?"

He shook his head. "Nope. It's much easier to bum off of Squall's, since his stuff is always in top shape." He grinned. "Of course, he threatened to disembowel me if something ever happened to any of his stuff, because he knew it would be my fault if something went wrong. But hey, that's Squall... and if I ever DID do something, then at least I know I could probably outrun him."

Gina could definitely believe it. Or at least, she made herself believe almost anything these days. She stuck to smiling and nodding, trying to rack her brain for more neutral conversation starters that didn't require her to freak out or to say too much about what kind of video games she liked to play, because knowing her luck, she'd mention FFVIII and have some MAJOR explaining to do. Then, she remembered that she had to call Sharon to update her on who was going with them to the mall today, and they didn't want to catch the bus too late, since that snow that delayed the sword-fighting tournament was bound to be upon them sooner or later.

_Well. One out of two is good enough._ Sharon would just have to put up with her grabbing the more sociable one of the pair. Gina started to formulate some un-retarded way to say that she had to go back and get ready, when the bathroom door whipped open, and a figure dressed in a black long-sleeved shirt and black jeans walked out with a towel over his head, rubbing vigorously.

"Zell, how many times do I HAVE to tell you, remember to pick the soap off of the shower floor when you-" Squall stopped in mid-lecture when he realized that there was another presence in the room besides Zell and himself.

Gina was calm... Oh hell, who was she kidding. She was certain her brain was about to explode all over their precious dorm room. Of course, it wasn't as bad as Tiffany coming out of the bathroom, because Squall was at LEAST dressed (minus shoes and socks) enough to be presentable. _But still..._

"Oh, hey!" Zell piped up, not missing a beat. "I thought you were gone or something. But anyway, I was lookin' for ya! Gina and Sharii were gonna head out to the mall today and she came to invite us out with them. Now that you're here, you can't run out on me, especially since we have company."

Squall moved his startled gaze towards Gina. The towel that he had been using to dry his hair had slipped off some, revealing a muss of chestnut hair that still dripped in some places, making him look... undeniably sexy. Gina screamed at herself not to stare like a deer caught in headlights, but she couldn't really help it at that point... especially when she caught a slight whiff of whatever cologne he was wearing. _Sensory overload. Brain usage 100 percent._

Zell, still seemingly oblivious to the whole awkward exchange, shut down the laptop and stretched as he stood up. "Well, that's a yes. Glad you can make it, buddy!" He gave Squall a playful slap on the shoulder, then made his way towards the half-opened bathroom door. "Since you're finally out of there, I can take a quick shower before we get outta here."

Gina was lost for a while that seemed like eternity, until her brain started unfreezing long enough to realize that Zell was peeling off the T-shirt he wore jogging that morning in preparation for the aforementioned shower. Her eyes widening in shock, she realized that if she didn't get out of there NOW, her brain would...

"WOW! I have to go!" Gina shot to her feet like a bullet. "SHARII IS WAITING! MUST GO CALL HER TO LET HER KNOW! GOODBYE!" She used what was left of her quickly diminishing brain cells to haul ass and get the fuck out of there, fast.


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N:** Just in case nobody knows, Para Para is a dance that originated in Japan when the Eurobeat music boom came into popularity. Eurobeat is primarily made in Italy and only sold in Japan, so unfortunately you won't be finding Niko's single "Night of Fire" in Best Buy or anything. But the dance itself is best explained as a much more complicated version of the Macarena; heavy concentration on precise hand and arm movements and little to no movement of the lower body. I make a reference towards Para Para in this chapter, so I decided to give you more useless trivia. :D

* * *

Sharon hung up the phone with a half puzzled, half amused look on her face. She knew she was out of breath when she finally answered the phone, but she was doing Para Para dances while awaiting Gina's call. Honestly, she didn't think Gina would pull through with it at all, and was very surprised to hear that they were indeed coming along. _Well, THIS certainly would be interesting._ First their college, now their regular hangout Rivertown Mall was going to be exposed to the impossibility of these interesting "fictional" characters.

Cutting off the Velfarre 2000 video in Windows Media Player, Sharon picked up her trusty bottle of Aquafina water that had been refilled so many times at the tap since the first time she bought it, the label was beginning to wear off. She had to cool her body heat down before she even tried to step outside, or the harsh winter air would threaten her immune system with a possible cold. Taking a long swig, she stepped towards the big picture window on the wall that lined the feet of both beds and took in the scene. She may not seem like one, but Sharon was somewhat of a nature lover; as long as she didn't have to be outside in it too long. She could find herself staring for hours out of that same window, watching the seasons change. It calmed her, no matter what the weather happened to be.

Speaking of calming, Gina needed SOMETHING to get her unwound after being surprised by a GQ cover Squall straight out of the shower, and nearly sitting through an unintentional striptease from Zell. Sharon laughed to herself when she ran the previous phone conversation through her head. She cracked up back then, too, because Gina sounded so panicked and in dire need of sedation until Sharon somehow managed to talk her out of her nervousness. _That girl is a mess, I swear..._

Sharon took a glance at the clock and walked to the sink to refill her bottle and stash it in the tiny fridge she and her roommate shared. As she put up an away message to the many people on her AIM buddy list, she grabbed her brush and comb and began straightening out the twin pigtails she had on either side of her head. She was glad she didn't have to worry about disturbing Anne; mostly because she was never there, especially on a weekend. Sharon didn't know how she got so lucky in having a roommate that was cool as Anne, and also one that wasn't around much except on pit stops in between classes, and of course at night to crash. Mostly, it was as if Sharon had the room to herself, which was fine with her. She didn't mind living with Anne at all, since they were almost surprisingly similar despite their evident differences, so even when they were around each other they had no problems. But it was good that at least one of them had a life to be out and about; if both of them just sat around the dorm all day doing nothing, then it would drive even the best-matched people to insanity.

Pulling a thick red fleece over her short white baby tee, she wrapped up in her matching red scarf as best as she could to brave the cold winter air. Her mom would certainly kill her if she knew she was still wearing her Lisa Frank jackets through the winter, but try as she might, Sharon couldn't put them down. Sure, they were the cause of her almost freezing to death on certain occasions of standing outside in the cold for longer than expected, but they were her trademark, and anything that attributed to Sharon being unique from the rest of the people around her was fine anytime.

She quickly put the familiar string of keys around her neck after pulling on her thick black gloves and red earmuffs, and rushed out of the room and out of the building. She walked at her usual pace, which was a lot faster than what most college students walked, but suited her perfectly. Sharon prayed that she wouldn't get to the bus stop at Mackinac Hall just in time to see the bus drive off without her, because it would be hell trying to get to Kirkoff in time to catch it in that weather. She trudged through the familiar path past the other freshman complexes and up the hill to Campus Drive, letting her thoughts wander to keep them off the bitter cold. Unfortunately, they wandered to a certain individual that she had been trying to forget about for the longest time, but to no avail.

She couldn't understand why Irvine was such an arrogant asshat. She couldn't understand just why he continued to push her buttons even after all of the comebacks that could make the toughest soldier flinch. But more than anything, she couldn't understand why he continued to flood her thoughts when she thought she had enough. Sharon was better than this; she didn't really want him to leave thinking that she was just a short-tempered violent bitch from Detroit. As if Detroit needed any more bad reputation. But then again, something about him just automatically triggered that response in her... almost as if it was a defense mechanism to protect herself from... Sharon stopped abruptly in the middle of the parking lot, shaking her head. _Hell no, don't even fix your half a brain to comprehend that you are getting attached to someone like him in the LEAST._ Sure, he certainly had the looks, and the accent wasn't too shabby either, but...

The short beep of a car horn jump-started her to keep moving to her destination and get the hell out of the middle of the parking lot. Now Sharon was getting annoyed at HERSELF. _Don't think about him. He's just one confusing ass character that came out of a VIDEO GAME, and exists only to make your college life a living hell. Ignore him, and before you know it, he'll fade away with the rest of his fictional friends and life will be back to normal... or as normal as it can get. _Sharon crossed the street to the bus stop sign and looked up from the sidewalk to see that Gina, Squall, and Zell were already there.

"Hey, Sharii, what took you so long?" Gina asked, giving her friend the customary hug. "We saw you stop dead in the middle of that parking lot as if there was a brick wall in front of you or something."

She shook her head. "Oh, nothing important. Just... thinking." Before Gina could inquire just exactly what she was thinking about, she turned her attention towards the two males. "OH MY GOD!" She exclaimed in false shock, putting her gloved hands to her face. "Is that Zell? Wearing a coat? And Squall? Wearing a... slightly longer rendition of his usual fur-lined leather jacket?"

Squall blinked at the sense of humor coming from the girl, since he didn't really know how else to respond to something like that. Zell, however, cheesed and turned around slowly, modeling his heavy lined down jacket.

"Yeah, I DO own stuff to keep warm." Zell said, stuffing his hands in the deep pockets. "If I'm not moving constantly, that's when I start feeling this wicked cold. Gina was kind enough to instruct us on wearing this before we left, since we didn't know we'd be standing here waiting for this bus for long."

Gina nodded, then glanced at her watch. "Well, it's supposed to be here by now... do you think we missed it?"

Sharon pursed her lips, the winter wind whipping her ponytails into her face. "Unless they're really evil and decided to come more than 15 minutes early today. But that would just be plain..." she stopped upon looking up and catching the sight of the bus pulling around the bend. They all grabbed their school IDs out of their pockets to show to the driver in order to ride for free, and piled onto the toasty warm Grand Rapids city bus.

"OOOOHHH, this feels GREAT!" Sharon openly expressed, pulling off her earmuffs and loosening the scarf around her neck. "No more cold winds for a good 25 minutes!"

Gina plopped down in the seat next to Sharon, while Squall and Zell took the pair of seats directly in front of them, both equally glad to let their bodies thaw out.

"So, what's the plan for today?" Zell turned around in his seat to stare at Sharon and Gina, as the bus motored its way towards the Kirkoff Center before finally heading off towards the mall. "Besides checking out that arcade, that is."

"Leave it all to me!" Sharon spoke up, a grin spreading across her face. "Da Hypaa will be your designated tour guide to all of the sights and sounds of Grand Rapids' own, Rivertown Mall!" She looked at Gina for confirmation, and Gina added her own smile and a nod. Squall sat forward, but was internally wondering just what he had got himself in for when he was dragged into this whole outing.

Paper rustled. "Shouldn't you be studying for your classes rather than spending your parents' money going mall hopping?"

Gina and Sharon exchanged glances, and even Squall turned around with a lifted eyebrow. Everyone came to face a lifted Grand Rapids newspaper a row behind the group, as if the person who obviously said the comment hadn't paused reading an article to share it with them. None of them were really for questioning an elder, even if the comment wasn't really called for.

"Heh..." Gina laughed half-heartedly, not knowing what to do.

"Well, if you're going to spend your energy doing that, might as well let someone like me join the party." The newspaper lowered, and a pair of mischievous eyes out from under the brim of a cowboy hat sparkled.

Gina immediately cheesed when she saw who it was, then glanced up at Sharon and winced at her expression change. "Shit..."

Squall sighed and turned back around, putting a hand to his forehead because he knew what was probably going to follow this little trick the cowboy had pulled on all of them.

"Hey, Irv, what's up?" Zell bounced like a little kid, still turned around in his seat. "Yeah, c'mon and join us! Sharii's gonna be our tour guide!"

"Ooh. Sounds entertaining." Irvine replied, adding a grin to the flirty glint in his eyes.

Sharon _was_ going to have a good day today. She really, really was. In fact, didn't she tell herself that she wasn't going to let him bug her anymore? She was going to ignore the first little comment, but the second one set something off in her that probably needed the sound effect of a twig snapping inside of her head. She got out of her seat and walked around, not caring about the other people boarding the bus, and snatched the newspaper out of his hands and leaned over his chair as menacingly as a girl in a Lisa Frank jacket with pigtails could manage.

"The only thing that's going to be entertaining for you today is having your very first 100 percent recycled newspaper enema." Sharon growled, crumpling up the newspaper slowly in one fist as if she was contemplating every inch of pain she was going to deal to the guy in front of her. Irvine, however, just sat there and smiled unconcernedly, as if everything was fine and there was not lady death standing over him.

Suddenly, the bus chose that moment to close the doors and start off abruptly, startling Zell to turn around the right way in his seat and get settled. Sharon, however, wasn't as prepared, as her footing was lost and she found herself tripping right into the cowboy's lap. Irvine instinctively reached up and steadied her balance by placing his hands on her hips, and left the final position to look... once again, wrong.

"Well. You sure do know how to fall for a guy, now don't you?" Irvine winked.

She was going to kill him. She just needed a weapon. She wondered if a sturdy weapon could be made out of a crumpled handful of newspaper. If someone could kill by stabbing with a spoon, then certainly it was possible. Gina saw her best friend clenching her teeth, and took it upon herself to whip out of her seat and grab Sharon's arm before she saw blood and possibly murdered almost every living being on the bus in a frenzy.

"C'mon Sharii-chan, let's go back to our seats." Gina said as if trying to coax a child to leave a display full of sweets. Sharon obeyed, but not without shooting death glares at him. Gina further tried to calm her rage by putting her own headphones over the girl's ears, and pressing play. Of course, it wasn't Happy Hardcore, but Linkin Park did the trick and Sharon was soon lost in the melodies of Meteora.

Irvine adjusted his black cowboy hat and relaxed against the seats, enjoying the ride. _Escaped the claws of death again, eh boy?_ He knew he should really stop provoking her... but he just couldn't stop. He liked walking up and kissing danger in the face - quite literally. Not to mention she looked quite cute whenever she got angry. Tilting his head, he studied the back of Sharon's head thoughtfully. _Just what's behind that bitchy exterior, I wonder? _Of course, he would have to start being a bit nicer in order for him to ever find out in this lifetime, because if he slipped up when Gina wasn't around to save his ass then he wouldn't be surprised if she was capable of inflicting great bodily harm.

_Ah, whatever._ Irvine switched his gaze to the passing scenery. _It's too late to make amends now._ If he tried, then Sharon would just hate him more out of suspicion. And with a right she should. She wasn't entirely sure of what the cowboy's purpose of continuing the whole dangerous game between them was. And to come to think of it, neither did he.

* * *

**QueenAdreena:** I don't know why you're one of the few faithful reviewers. XD I don't beg for R/R in my summaries so I guess people don't bother. Either that or I intimidated them a bit in my A/N for the first chapter, hehe. But that's okay; I'm just happy to know that you enjoy it so far. And I agree that Seifer IS hawt; I just wanted to focus on how intimidating he is. And the rest of the crew will appear in the story later, so I didn't forget anyone, hehe.

**HailfireSano:** Glad you like it! And I agree with you; I write my stories even if the review button grows cobwebs. You won't have to worry about me leaving my readers dry just because I get few reviews, because I know there's someone out there who reads it and enjoys it, and won't necessarily always leave a R/R to say so.


	10. Chapter 10

**A/N: **So... I've noticed that as the story go on, that the word count gradually increases per chapter. Right now, I can't ever think of writing anything save for an Epilogue or a Prologue with something less than 5000 words, but some earlier chapters barely got past the 1000 word mark. Wow. Kinda tripped out.

* * *

The bus pulled up to the curb of Rivertown Mall, right outside the mall entrance that was next to Sears. Everyone piled off of the bus, moving effectively past the group that was trying to get on the bus at the same time. Gina ducked and dodged through people, trying hard to catch up with her long-legged friend. She wondered if the reason she was walking so fast is because she didn't want to be caught standing anywhere near the Galbadian cowboy, but in any case she felt she should slow down, since they had people in tow.

Sharon took a deep breath, and took off Gina's headphones with a sigh. She was GOING to be a good tour guide, and she was going to have fun while doing it, too. Upon entering one of the lobbies of the mall, she stopped in front of the Mountain Dew vending machines and turned around with a wide smile. Da Hypaa was going to shine today, not the Sharii who despised a certain person's guts.

"WELCOME ALL, TO THE WONDERFUL SHOPS OF RIVERTOWN MALL!" Sharon bellowed in her best announcer voice, drawing attention from all sorts of people who were milling around in the area. She handed the Walkman back to Gina. "Today, Tour Guide Hypaa will be at your service, to let you newcomers know of the many sights and sounds this beautiful mall has to offer."

Gina smiled but looked around her self-consciously, thinking that Sharon was doing her job a bit too well. Of course, she knew her best friend didn't give a hoot as to what other people thought of her when she was having fun. Squall, however, was staring at her as if she had lost her mind at last, and probably would've snuck off to head back to campus if he even had the slightest idea of what bus to take to get back.

Sharon led them through the usual path she and Gina would take, going past Payless and Kay-Bee and glorifying the Starbucks Coffee for their frappuchinos and caramel apple ciders. Zell couldn't help himself and bought himself a cider along with a couple of equally sweet coffee cakes and devoured it all before they had gotten very far from the kiosk. Gina also helped the tour group towards Rue 21, a store that she and Sharon recently started whoring for their sales and style of clothing.

The colorful college student skipped through the long hallways of the mall, indicating almost every store as if she had lived there from the day she was born. It was understandable, seeing as though this place was the only real source of entertainment GVSU students had if they weren't mobile. Gina made sure that the group didn't get separated... or Squall didn't run off, either way. Not to mention she tried to keep the distance between Sharon and Irvine as far as she could manage without getting too far away.

"So... enjoying yourself so far?" Gina spoke up, also taking the job of talking to the cowboy since Sharon probably wouldn't spare him a civil word.

"Oh, quite." Irvine replied, flashing a grin that made Gina blush. "How can't I, when two ladies are taking the task to show us around?"

Gina made a mental note to try to build up her endurance to frequent flirty behavior, especially if she wanted to not be reduced to a puddle every time he talked. "Oh yeah... let me apologize for Sharii-chan." she started. "She's not always like that."

Irvine blinked. "Like what? How she's acting now or the heaping amounts of gratitude she shows me?"

"Regarding you, I meant. Sharii's usually like hyper and bubbly all while kinda being headstrong." Gina took her Emily cat hat she bought from Hot Topic off of her head, now that she was warming up. "There's two things I know that cause Sharii to get ugly, and that's if you threaten her pride or me. She's really protective, like a big sister of sorts, even if I'm the oldest." She laughed. "But, yeah... just wanted to let you know that, just in case you never get to see what Sharii-chan's really like."

He nodded. "Well, I certainly didn't know all of that, and probably wouldn't have if you hadn't indulged me."

Gina scratched her head. "But... I dunno, I can't really give you a reason for why she's treating you like crap. Okay well, I can kinda understand, since you two didn't exactly get off to a good start. But still, even with all of that factored in, it confuses me. I mean, you are the kind of guy Sharii would usually have a crush on..."

"I am?" Now the conversation was taking an interesting turn.

"Yeah. First off, you have the accent, and there's this guy on this show that we really like watching that has one similar to yours, and Sharii's been known to crush on him to the point of near obsession. Then, I think she has a thing for cowboy hats, since she has a collection of them herself. You just probably haven't seen them yet because it's been too cold for her to wear them. And... well... lemme shut up, because Sharii wouldn't be too happy that you knew even that much about her." Gina explained apologetically.

"No, it's alright. I've already got a better enough picture on her from just that much info." Irvine said, and turned his attention towards the hyperactive tour guide up front. So, there was a possibility that she could be attracted to him. Even if it was the same as a snowball's chance in hell, it was still a possibility. Not that he wanted to hook up with her or anything; it was all just a game like it had always been, just with a slightly different turn. Sharon sure did make it interesting, which was for sure. But it still didn't add up. She seemed to express a genuine hatred for him, and did everything in her power to stay away from him or to dish out some verbal pain. Well... it was something to contemplate if he was ever bored.

Meanwhile, Sharon had led them all the way to the end of the mall, and they rode the escalator up to the top near FYE to survey the second floor. Zell played the part of an excited tourist perfectly, wanting to go in almost every single store and come out of another. Squall seemed a little bit more tolerant of the whole situation, and the anti-social barrier that was constantly up around him seemed to lighten up some. They came to a stop in front of Barnes and Noble while Sharon came up with a sentence or two about it.

"And this is Rivertown Mall's very own Barnes and Noble booksellers, a fabulous place for not only bookworms, but for coffee lovers alike." Sharon chirped. "Gina and I came here often, especially when I was collecting a lot of manga... which I still am... HEY man, that reminds me, this damn place STILL puts my Sailormoon manga in the fricken KIDS section! What the hell is up with that, man? Dude, I swear, I should REALLY get a hold of the management and let them know what's up because I'm not gonna..."

"Can we go in?" Squall interrupted, surprising everyone since these were the first words he'd uttered since they began on the whole mall escapade. He was looking inside the store with much interest, and Gina was really glad he finally started getting into the whole thing.

"Uh... yeah, sure." Sharon smiled, and led the group inside the huge bookstore. Inside, the group split off. Sharon dropped her tour guide job for a moment to make a beeline towards the manga section, with Zell following close behind. Irvine went in a similar direction, stopping at the small section of board games to survey the selection. Gina looked all around for Squall, since it seemed that the moment they stepped into the store, he'd disappeared_. Oh, I hope he didn't use this as a ploy to run away or something..._ She shrugged it off and walked to the back of the store, making her way around the tables crowded with books on sale until she came to a familiar section, and grinned.

The Anne Rice collection. Gina remembered one of the first time she and Sharon had discovered this place that they sat down on the floor in the middle of the aisle and just reflected on the Vampire Chronicles, the books that they've been reading since high school. Between the two girls, they probably owned them all, but they still liked looking over the selection to make sure they didn't miss any along the way. She examined the new covers of a lot of the books she already owned, and almost envied how they were spruced up fancily ever since they had become popular.

Looking up when she realized someone else was also in the aisle, she almost died when she recognized it to be Squall. He was busily studying the back of "The Vampire Lestat", oblivious to the girl that managed to gape at him for the second time that day. Gina didn't really want to disturb him, but it was the chance to actually try to start a conversation with the silent character.

"So... you like Anne Rice, too?"

Squall looked up as if waking from a dream. "Umm... yeah, I do."

Gina racked her brain to keep it going. "That's cool. Sharii and I started reading them back in 12th grade, and we really enjoy the Vampire Chronicles."

"I haven't really had a chance to read a lot of her works, but what I have so far, I like." Squall stated, slipping the book back into the open space on the shelf. "The way she writes makes the whole story flow in a way that keeps you coming back. Not to mention the characters she comes up with draw you into their world."

Gina tried not to start cheesing like a fool. "Yeah, I know what you mean. I pretty much like almost all of the vampires in the stories, but I think my all time favorite is Louie. Both the movie and the books really amplify his angsty background and life."

Squall gave her a slightly amused look. "This is the first time I've seen someone so happy over angst."

Gina blushed furiously and tried to make her mouth stop turning upward so hard. "Heh... well, I can't really help it. I don't know why, but angst is very amusing to me... not real angst, of course." She quickly covered for herself. Gina didn't want Squall closing up on her because he thought she would start laughing at his life story or something... even if she probably did when she thought he was just a video game character. "But when it's fictional, it serves as a real good development for the character... better than almost any other turn of events, when you think about it. It helps you understand certain motivations or behavioral patterns that may develop in the future if something goes wrong, ya know? Not to mention it's kinda sexy." She stopped abruptly. _Did I just say that I thought angst was... oh lord... _She hoped that he wouldn't put two and two together and realize that she was inadvertently hinting towards the fact that she was attracted to him.

The brown-haired male lifted an eyebrow and started to say something, until Irvine stuck his head around the corner and distracted him.

"Sorry to interrupt, folks, but our trip to the bookstore has been cut short because Sharon made an offhanded comment about a video game store and sent Zell rushing like a bat outta hell to get there."

Squall sighed and placed his hand to his forehead again. "So much for staying in one place. We'd better get going before he runs somewhere else."

Gina nodded and followed Irvine out, her head still somewhat spinning over her victory in having an actual conversation with "Mr. Silent-Angst", as Sharon always liked to dub him. Just a little bit more work, and she hoped she could get him talking easier so it wasn't like she had to pry the words out of him.

They arrived in the already crowding GameStop, another frequent hangout of the best friends, for obvious reasons. Video games made up more than half of their 5-hour conversations, and they were always on the lookout for more good titles.

Zell was furiously pounding on the controller of the Game Cube display, trying to win a match in the widely popular Soul Calibur 3D fighting game. "C'mon... c'mon... WHAT? AGH!" He moaned as his character was pummeled into the ground for what seemed like the 32948734th time. "I give up."

Sharon let out a laugh. "It's about time, man. You've been getting your ass pwned for the past 10 minutes. I give you props for determination, though. I would've given up after the 4th try or so."

Gina smiled herself and wandered over to the Playstation 2 section, going over titles that she had seen last time she came, but keeping an eye out for a couple of new games she noted she wanted. Irvine picked up where Zell left off, trying his hand at beating the CPU down. Squall stood in the center of the store, looking around sort of awkwardly. He didn't play video games like Zell did, so he felt a bit out of place. He let his crystal blue eyes drift up to the television near the ceiling that was constantly playing previews of numerous games. He started to look away, until he saw something that he'd never thought he'd see.

A chocobo. In a video game. Squall stared on in shock as he looked at the familiar bird, digitized in almost an exact replica of how he remembered them. _How would they know what a chocobo looks like? _

Sharon stood off to the side, smirking at Irvine's sad attempts at beating down his opponent Nightmare, then casually looked to the rest of the party until she saw Squall staring up at the TV with his mouth open as if it was the Second Coming. Furrowing her brow, she took a look at what he was so interested in, and almost had a heart attack when she realized what it was. _Oh.. fucking... shit!_

"HEY SQUALL WHAT BE UP IN THIS HIZZY!" Sharon jumped in front of him suddenly, shocking him completely out of his daze. She realized that what she said was stupid and totally uncalled for, but drastic times called for drastic measures.

"Ah... umm..." He blinked at her, startled not only by her sudden burst but by what he thought he saw on the TV above her.

"You want Gina to come over? GOOD IDEA!" she interrupted, loud enough for her best friend to look over quizzically. "HEY, G-FUU! SQUALL HERE IS BORED, SO YOU'D BETTER KEEP HIM HAPPY!"

Gina didn't know what was going on. One minute she was looking at promising new RPGs, the next Sharon was calling her over in a panicked frenzy. She walked to them, staring at Sharon like she had lost her mind. "Uh, Sharii-chan... what are you yelling ab-"

Zell was the next person to cut in on the scene, shouting to Gina from the back of the store where the Playstation titles were. "HEY GINA! Do you know anything about how many games these Final Fantasy series goes through? I see an awful lot over here..."

Both Gina and Sharon moved at the speed of light to Zell's position, temporarily forgetting about "keeping Squall company". Gina reached out and pulled Zell's arm rather forcefully away from the shelf, while Sharon scanned the selection and removed Final Fantasy VIII and stashed it behind a rather large Diablos II box on the other side.

"Wow, what's going on?" Zell asked, confused at Gina's urgency.

"Umm... well.. the truth is... uh... the series really sucks." Gina lied as well as she could manage. "Sorry I pulled you over so quick, but ya know... I didn't want to say anything near the people because I don't want to cause any ruckus with Final Fantasy fans. You know how it is."

Sharon nodded slightly at Gina's quick cover, and mentally kicked herself for even bringing them into a video game store, of all places. What if it was Final Fantasy VIII playing on that television screen instead of X? She didn't even want to think about it. Then, she also realized that they should get out of there fast, just in case it DID appear on the TV or something else around the place caught their eye. Not to mention if other hardcore FFVIII fans happened to walk in...

"WELL! Look at the time." Sharon emphasized by glancing at her watch. "We'd better get a move on so you all can see the rest of the mall, or at least the arcade! Wouldn't want it to close on us, now would we?" She backed up towards the entrance, and without thinking, grabbed Irvine's arm away from the Game Cube and out with her. Gina smiled her best one yet, and followed the two out. Zell brushed off the whole weirdness of the recent turn of events, and called out for them to wait up. Squall took a final glance up at the TV, but it had already gone to another video game. _Maybe I was just seeing things..._ he summed up, as he turned and followed the group out to where they were waiting by the mall's elevator to the first floor.


	11. Chapter 11

**A/N:** Sorry it took me longer than usual to update; had a crisis the weekend I was planning to upload these next two chapters and I completely forgot. I probably should have mentioned this before, but I must pretend that people do not have common sense. FFVIII is not mine. GVSU is not mine. Rivertown Mall is not mine. Hell, I think it would be pretty safe to say that I don't own ANYTHING except for the storyline and OC's. Just… don't sue me, please? I have no money.

* * *

Sharon and Gina rushed into the dimly lit environment of Kahunaville, leaving their "tour group" to follow them. At that point, being a good tour guide was the last thing on their minds; being out of the prior predicament was much more relieving.

"Oh... my god. I can't believe what almost happened." Gina breathed, huddling closer to her best friend as to prevent others from hearing.

"Hell, tell me about it. That shit was not kosher. We have to be more careful from now on... I mean, we were, it's just that little blunder we can't make again..."

"I know. But Sharii..." Gina paused. "We can't hide it from them forever. If they stay in our world longer, then they're gonna find out sooner or later."

Sharon didn't even want to think about that, because she didn't know how she would address the situation if it ever came down to it. "Well... let's just act normal. It'll work out, I'm sure of it."

Both girls almost jumped three feet into the air when a hand was placed on either of their shoulders. "So, tell me... is it customary for two lovely tour guides to leave their group out in the harsh world of Rivertown Mall?" Irvine said playfully.

Gina swallowed and grinned at the cowboy, trying to make her internal worries go away. Sharon surprisingly put on a calm smile, and gently removed his hand from her shoulder as she turned to face him. Still holding onto it, she replied, "If you touch me with this hand again, then be assured that you will be pulling back a nub."

Zell winced at how easily Sharon could darken whenever Irvine addressed her, even while keeping a serene expression. _Yeowch... in situations like these, I gotta wonder whose worse with threats; Squall or Sharii..._

Irvine knew that it was a warning signal to basically back the fuck off while he still could. Instead of pulling back his trapped hand, he placed his free one daringly on the side of her face, while never removing his gaze. "What about this hand, then?" _You idiot. Stop while you're ahead! _But no matter what his brain was screaming at him to do, the message wasn't being received correctly.

Sharon continued the stare down with simulated ease, even though inside she was boiling with so much rage at his audacity that she was almost scared at herself. _He wants me to snap... _She wasn't going to lose this time. She had lost too many times before to this game, and today, she was determined to win. She merely sweetened her smile and stepped dangerously close up to her opponent until she was inches away from his ear, and whispered, "You missed, sharpshooter."

No one knew what the hell was going on, except the fact that no dead bodies were littering the floor as was expected. But whatever Sharon had said made Irvine take a step back, and the winner released his hand and turned to the rest of them, her demeanor switching so easily that it was almost unstable. "I'd like you all to follow Tour Guide Hypaa as she introduces you to one of her all time favorite video games, Dance Dance Revolution! This way, please."

Gina stared at Sharon as she passed by breezily, as if she didn't know what to expect from her anymore. Zell glanced over at the still immobile cowboy as he rushed to keep up, exchanging am "I feel you, man" look. Squall put his hands in his jacket pockets and stepped forward next, and just happened to add insult to injury with the words, "Can we say, 'pwned'?"

Irvine blinked at the usually silent character in shock as he moved forward, then closed his eyes and felt his trademark grin appear on his face. _Well, Sharon won the battle._ Well done; she was learning quickly. _But the war is far from over._

Zell stared up at the brightly lit flashing arcade machine in front of him in awe. "Wow... how does this thing work?"

"Oh well, you see those arrows on the machine's floor? It's called the 'dance pad', and when you see the corresponding arrows reach a certain spot on the screen, you step on it." Gina supplied. "In reality, it's more complicated than that, but I can't really explain it unless you see what I mean. Hey, I know! Sharii-chan!" she called. "Why don't you take them through the basics by doing a test run through?"

Sharon nodded and was already on it, counting out 6 tokens from the group in her hands. She hated paying so much for a game of DDR; even back in the days when she was desperate for the addictive torrent of arrows, she never believed she would have to pay a dollar fifty for 3 songs she normally paid 75 cents for. Sighing inwardly, she stepped up on her favorite right side dance pad and plugged in the tokens for play, hitting the flashing green start button on the panel at the Dance Dance Revolution Extreme title screen.

"Here, we have the Select Play screen." Sharon indicated. "You can either play by yourself, with another person on the vacant dance pad, or even take on both pads at once in a special mode of play called Double." She selected Single Play, and continued at the next screen. "There are many difficulties in this newest version of DDR. Basically, you have beginner, which is for wussies, then Light, which is like an easy mode. After that, there's Standard, a midway point connecting Light mode and the next one, Heavy mode. Heavy is the most difficult of the four mentioned, but if you were uber-leet at that mode, then you could also move the cursor over more where you can get two more options; a Challenge mode and a Nonstop mode. But, before this timer runs out on me, I'll start on Light."

Zell leaned on the safety bar of the other pad while studying the screen intently, as if he was in class. Squall looked on with the rest of the group, and silently wondered if Zell would have better grades if he gave at least half of the same attention he was devoting now to his schoolwork.

"Now, we have the Select Music screen. Probably the easiest part to grasp, because all you have to do now is scroll through the vast list using the left or right yellow arrows until you come to something you like, and press the green start button at your choice. Don't worry; they give you a short sample of the song so you don't end up choosing something sucky." She laughed and scrolled through a few of the starting songs slowly. "But, don't pick merely on how a song sounds. You should also consider the Foot Rating that appears below the song banner on the left side of the screen. It ranges from 1 to 10 feet, one being the easiest and usually only found if you start on beginner mode. Also, look at the BPM of the song. If the song is fast, then most likely the arrows will be, too. So now, I'll turn it over to Gina while I pick a song for this lovely, lovely tutorial!" She bowed in the direction of her best friend, then used what was left of her remaining time to choose something offhandedly.

Gina cleared her throat and grinned. _Boy, is Live Journal going to get the entry of the year when this day comes to a close._ "So, Sharii has picked her song, which is..." she blinked as Sharii did her routine of holding down the start button to get to the options, and quickly set her usual mods before starting the stage. "Okay well, don't pay attention to what she just did. It's just something extra to add to the excitement of the game, and for someone who's played as much as Sharii has, she does it kinda fast. But yeah... she's playing a fairly simple song called The Shining Polaris. You see how she steps on the arrows when they reach the flashing stationary ones at the top? That's all you basically have to do. The game rates the timing, Perfect being the best possible and Boo or Miss being the worst, since that usually means you stepped too late or early, or just missed the arrow altogether. Oh yeah, and see those long arrows that look like green comets? Those are called Freeze Arrows, and they're treated just like regular ones except that you have to hold down the arrow until the green is gone and you see an O.K. to let you know you did it right. Although, I think they call them freeze arrows because your brain FREEZES when you see them." Gina griped.

Zell continued to stare on. "Cool... whoever thought of this deserves a medal or something..."

Sharon finished the song and paused at the score screen. "Dude, almost forgot. After a song, if you don't fail, then you get this score notification screen that tells you what rating you got for each step, and compiles it all into a letter score. E usually means you failed, and normally you wouldn't get to see it unless playing on Beginner mode where you're allowed to fail the first stage. AAA is the best rating you can get, and that's only obtained if you happen to get a Perfect on every single arrow."

"That's kind of impossible to do, isn't it? Irvine pointed out. "You'd have to be a machine yourself to try and get a perfect timing on the arrows."

Sharon tilted her head to notify her agreement at that statement. "Yeah, but you'd be surprised at how many people manage to bag those rare scores. Even on the hardest mode, they practice almost all the time until their body knows the arrows rather than their brain. Believe me, it's easier that way. Because many a time, your brain might short out on what to do next, but if your body instinctively goes towards the right arrow, then you eliminate the middle man altogether."

After that, she showed them how you could step either up or down twice quickly to change the difficulty, and told them which colors meant what. Then she did Daikenkai on Standard to show them how the difficulty could increase, and for her last song she finished out on Holic on Heavy. Everyone winced when they saw how nasty the arrows could get on high difficulty levels, and then looked at her in disbelief when she said that there were songs even crazier than that. Running over the whole "tutorial" in her head, she figured she had touched on enough and it was time for people to try it.

"Ooh ooh! ME!" Zell bounced up, looking like a hyperactive puppy. "Who's gonna do it with me?"

Everyone behind him kind of looked off to the side. Okay, so the game was interesting. But none of them were really up for stepping up there and possibly making a fool of themselves in an arcade.

Sharon smirked. "Yeah. It's the "omg-wtf-I-don't-wanna-pwn-myself-in-public" syndrome, readily rampant to most newcomers to these types of rhythm games. But hey... Gina and I didn't get good at this overnight. We started in front of people, and ignored them to get better at it. In fact, most of them weren't really making fun of us because they sucked at it too! HA!"

Zell pouted his face and did a pretty good rendition of what Gina usually does when she wants company in doing something. Gina's eyebrows lifted in surprise. _Hey, I thought I was the only one who could pull that kind of thing off! _Squall stared at Zell, unfazed by this look. "You know... that doesn't work on me, and it never will. I don't do these video games; you do, remember?"

"But... it's... fun!" the tattooed blonde whined. "You never want to do anything fun! Please? Pretty please? With a hot dog on top? And extra ketchup? Mustard? Sauerkraut? What about some..." he drifted off when Squall gave him another "yeah, right" look, and walked off. He pouted again and then turned the look to Irvine, who saw it coming and waved his hands in front of his face. "Oh no... that look only works on me if it's coming from the opposite sex, and you're not a woman, so... have fun?"

Zell looked on the verge of total defeat until Gina spoke up. "Okay, I'll play it with you, Zell. Although, let me say that I'm not as good as Sharii-chan; she plays it a whole lot more than me and I'm severely out of practice." she smiled and took off her coat. "So, you don't have to worry about anything but Light mode from me." His bright blue eyes immediately lit right back up and he turned towards the machine. "ALRIGHT! Now... oh crap, wait I need tokens..."

Sharon stepped off of the machine to let them have it, grabbing her Lisa Frank jacket and tossing it over one shoulder, while looking around to make sure she didn't see Mr. Silent-Angst sneaking out of the arcade while everyone was distracted. Spotting him walking slowly towards the back of the place, she started to go over and MAKE him play something. _Nobody comes to an arcade and disses all the games unless they all completely suck_. Then the weight of her jacket disappeared off of her shoulder and she turned to see Irvine holding it, the usual flirty grin on his face. She twitched. _He's touching... the jacket..._

"You'll get it back if you play something with me." he answered without waiting for her to curse at him, waving his prize in front of her face dauntingly.

Sharon forced herself to stay calm. She had gotten the upper hand earlier, but she didn't want to blow it all away so quickly by killing him now. She'd get that damn jacket back, she just had to play her cards right. Nodding to accept his challenge, she followed the cowboy to a Need for Speed type racing game, and watched as he draped the coat across one of the seats and waved his hand. "Ladies first."

_Oh, ho ho... _she cackled to herself. _This cowboy's going right back home to the range today. _Besides DDR, her first mastery was that of racing games. Of course, she wasn't as good at the arcade versions than the home ones, mostly because when she came to arcades she hardly played anything but DDR. But she still managed to pull through. Sharon sat in the racing seat and plugged in the credits fast, and paused before pushing the start button to the still standing Irvine. "Are you really going to play with me, or does a lady have to drive all by herself?"

He smiled and took the seat next to her, keying in his credits. "Such a lady probably wouldn't be able to catch up to a man like me."

"Oh, is that so?" she inquired, choosing her vehicle and racing course. "Do you wish to clarify that on the road, _boy?" _

_Touché._ Irvine responded by choosing his car, and to Sharon's surprise, selected Manual as well. _Hmm... this could actually be a challenge._ As talented as she was at these sorts of games, she never really did teach herself how to drive a stick. Normally, she got away with dusting her competition without it, but today she was facing a very important person that was probably being driven by his loss earlier. _This could make for a dangerous combination..._

Soon, the green light had been signaled, and the two players were racing down a swerving highway, filled with many obstacles of everyday life along with many others. Irvine quickly took the lead, and Sharon just followed behind calmly, waiting for an opening while sizing up his racing style. This was her strength; she knew her opponents would eventually get cocky and screw up, and when they would, she would dust them like the tortoise against the hare.

He swerved past the other computer-controlled drivers and switched gears occasionally, glancing over sometimes to see where Sharon was. She seemed to be making no kind of obvious effort to take the lead, but he couldn't underestimate her. He kept his lead steadily, and tried his best to make it look like it was just a Sunday drive down Main Street.

Going through a tunnel, Sharon squinted ahead and saw a very tight hairpin turn. If she was correct in analyzing him, he would take the turn in a typical racer's fashion. If not... well, then she had maybe approximately half a mile to cover as much ground as she could. She carefully removed her right hand from the normal grasp of the steering wheel to cradle the top part of it underhanded, preparing to make the turn.

Player 2 approached the turn and skillfully executed a controlled skid, leaving a stretch of black skid marks across the street in his wake. As he quickly straightened out of it, his eyes widened as he watched Player 1's red Viper breeze past him as if it had appeared out of thin air. Well, it kind of HAD, since she had been too far back to be much of a concern... or had she? As he geared his vehicle up quickly, he realized that she must've taken the turn differently than what a racer would have done, somehow eliminating the need for a controlled skid altogether. He grinned, silently commending her for pulling something completely unexpected like that off.

Sharon's brown eyes shone from behind her petite glasses. This was classic. Irvine did exactly what she wanted him to do, and while he was busy trying to be uber-leet with his high speed turns, she braked enough to cruise around the inner part of the hairpin with ease, still leaving room to slam on the gas and REALLY start racing to the finish line. _Gets 'em every time._ She took the rest of the small turns with the grace of a swan and crossed the finish line, looking up at the screen to clock her time.

A tie.

She blinked. _What the hell? That shit never happens!_ The flashing yellow letters on the screen clearly indicated that she had tied in first place with Irvine, right down to the tenths of a second. She turned her head to meet Irvine's equally surprised, but also triumphant gaze. So, neither driver won. Inwardly, they both wondered if the ongoing war that ensued between them would also come out the same way, or would fate grant one of them the title of victor?

* * *

**HailfireSano:** Yes, it could have been very bad if they had figured out they were video game characters. I'd imagine something like a space-time continuum rip would happen and the world would explode. How would one continue writing a story if something drastic like that happened? Well, I'm sure someone who's a better writer than me could do it, but I'm not even gonna try to tackle something like that, lol.

**QueenAdreena:** Glad you enjoyed the last two chapters. I hope your art project turns out turns out okay, as well!


	12. Chapter 12

Gina stumbled off of the dance pad, hardly able to feel her legs. "Need... water... you... play..." She really liked DDR, and liked it even more when she was able to do it with Zell of all people. However, she wasn't lying when she mentioned earlier that she was really out of practice, and Zell seemed to have the endurance of a triathlon player. They had gone through several games of DDR after the first one, and Zell just seemed to enjoy it more and more, increasing in talent with every song. _Man, if I could progress like he did, then I'd probably be as thin as Sharii and as buff as the martial artist._

Sweat beading off of her forehead, she reached behind her and moved her long ponytail off of her seemingly steaming neck while looking around for a water fountain. To her dismay, she remembered that there wasn't one in the place, and she would have to walk outside to the mall to find one. _Man, what kind of fucking arcade doesn't have a water fountain?_ She started to turn around to the exit when a cup of water appeared in front of her, like an oasis in the middle of a burning desert. Following the arm that was holding it in front of her, Gina didn't have time to be shocked again as she smiled weakly and gulped it down.

Squall stuck his hands in his pockets as the girl proceeded to down the cup in almost less than a minute, knowing that she'd probably have a nasty case of brain freeze after that. He'd circled around most of the arcade, lost in his own thoughts before coming back around to the front again to catch Zell putting Gina through some of the most fast paced, strenuous songs. He made a side trip to the small bar that the arcade had and picked up a free cup of ice water for the poor girl, since she probably couldn't endure very much more of it, no matter how much she wanted to continue playing.

"You kept up with him pretty well. I'm impressed." Squall said awkwardly, not really used to being the one to initiate a conversation.

Gina almost choked on the last bit of water. _He is actually talking without being forced into it. _"Uh, thanks! I don't really know how I did it, and I don't know how he's STILL doing it... well, maybe I can, but... ow..." she was cut off by the blood vessels in her head contracting from the cold water rushing into her system too fast.

Squall looked at her in concern, and took the empty plastic cup out of her hand and tossed it into a nearby garbage can. "Are you…"

She waved it off with her hand. "It's alright, it's gone now." Gina gave a final rub to her forehead, and was relieved to feel the sweat disappearing as her body heat slowly began to return to normal. _Oh Teen Spirit, don't fail me now... _Gina looked back up at Zell still stomping away to Witch Doctor, even managing to turn around in midair before landing a jump. _Unbelievable._ She didn't think she'd be able to get back up on that dance pad any time soon, and as it was she was quickly depleting her funds paying the insane price. Looking in her pocket and seeing that she had 6 more tokens left, she got an idea.

"Hey Squall, c'mere for a sec." Gina started walking towards the back of the arcade, and he lifted an eyebrow before following. Soon they were in front of another peculiar looking arcade machine, only this one was flanked by what looked like renditions of electronic guitars. He looked at Gina questionably as she turned to face him, a hesitant smile on her face.

"Okay. So I know you don't play video games. I figured that out from the time you blew off my offer to play Grand Theft Auto. But this one is really fun, and I guarantee you won't look like a fool playing it. I'll even pay for our game. What do you say?" Gina said in a rushed matter.

Squall switched his skeptical glance from her to the machine and back again. _Guitar Freaks...? _He almost responded in his usual manner when he thought back to the other times Gina was able to convince him to try something he'd never done before. Kodomo no Omocha wasn't that horrible, so he didn't think she had bad tastes. He placed his hand on one of the guitars hooked up to the game. "How do you play?"

Gina lit up like it was Christmas. She was really getting the hang of getting Squall to do things with her. She took the other guitar and placed the strap over her head. "It's really simple, probably more so than DDR. I kinda want to learn how to play the guitar, so this game is kinda like my escape into the fantasy world where I can actually do that sort of thing. These three buttons up here replace the strings." She pointed to the red, green, and blue buttons at the top. "When the corresponding color bar on the screen gets to an indicating point near the top of the screen, you hold down the right button and strum this big plastic switch down here. Sometimes during the song, you will get two colors at a time, so make sure you hold them both down before strumming or you'll miss out on both. Also, look off to that side of the screen and you might see something called a Wailing Bonus, and you have to pull back like rockers do as you hit the buttons at the same time to get it."

The chestnut haired male nodded and put on the guitar in a similar fashion and waited for Gina to key in the credits. He listened as she further explained how there were different modes of difficulty on this game as well, but they would be staying on basic since Gina wasn't good enough to move on to the more difficult levels. She picked a rather happy go lucky song that he didn't really know the name of, seeing as though the title was in Japanese. At first, he almost died at the sight of panda bears dancing across the background of the screen. _How do they expect you to concentrate on the game when they have crap like this in your peripheral vision?_

As the song and others came and went, Squall figured out that the hardest thing about it was making his brain register which button he was holding down at what time, along with getting down some of the more furious strumming patterns. Other than that, he found himself having fun with it, despite himself. He hoped Zell wouldn't tire of DDR soon enough to see him doing this, because he'd probably never hear the end of it.

Gina strummed away happily, glancing over at Squall occasionally. She could tell he was enjoying himself now, even though most people would have just said that he seemed somewhat neutral. It was sad how she was able to read him rather easily now, when others he saw more often probably didn't know what to expect out of him. But then again, did he ever open up as much as he was now to anyone else? _Probably not,_ Gina mused. It still wasn't much, but she was pleased enough at the ground covered from the first time she encountered him. The current song ended with an all three button wailing bonus, and both of them reeled back the guitar at the same time, executing it perfectly.

They both looked at each other then, and Gina's brain almost did another overload as she noticed the trace of a smile on his face. _Aah! He's smiling! He never smiles at all! _She studied his eyes, and recognized a warmth there that was low, like a tiny candle in the depths of whatever inner troubles he was dealing with... but at least it was there. And Gina really was feeling lucky to be the one to witness this, probably more so than she had been the day he had unexpectedly burst out laughing in her dorm.

She snapped out of her thoughts to see that Squall had put the guitar back in the holster and had turned to walk away. Thoroughly confused, she said, "Hey umm... where are you..."

He stopped walking and turned his head around to look back at her. "If we're going to play again, you need more tokens, right?" He continued walking towards the token machine.

Gina wanted to pinch herself to make sure that she wasn't dreaming. But hell, if she was, then it was a longass dream, that was for sure. She waited patiently for Squall's return, and thought about how different the effects all three of the guys had on her. For Irvine, it was like a giddy high school girl crush, and the constant flirty nature that seemed to permeate everything made her feel slightly fuzzy in the head. Of course, more than anything, it was amusing as hell to see him and Sharon wage a battle of the egos and witty comebacks. Zell was more like a friend... that had a damn good body and infectious happiness. She could see herself being the most relaxed with him, because she was under no pressure to be anything but herself around him. Squall... he was the tricky one. Every time Gina encountered him, it seemed to be a battle to try to breathe and think straight. She found herself constantly stepping on eggshells around him, not knowing whether the next thing she said would cause him to close up to her completely. So far, so good... but it still did nothing to ease the butterflies she always felt whenever he looked at her, talked to her, or... hell, everything he did just made her nervous. She couldn't carry on a relationship that way, now could she?

She stopped. Was she just thinking about how it would be if she actually had the chance of being able to date one of them? _No way._ Gina shook her head as if to shake it out of one ear. _You don't... date... fictional... characters._ But if rationality was an option here, then none of them should even be here, they shouldn't be hanging out with them, and Squall wouldn't be coming back with a handful of tokens to play Guitar Freaks with her. She looked down confusedly. Gina's strength lied in her ability to rationalize her way out of everything. It helped her, and it certainly helped Sharon in times of need. But now, it was if she had just realized that she no longer had that around to calm her down, and it was... troubling. What was she going to do with herself?

Squall was putting the tokens into the slot when he noticed Gina looking quite perplexed, not really seeming all there. He furrowed his brow, inwardly noting how he got that expression whenever he had something unsettling on his mind, which was pretty much most of the time. This was one of the few times that he'd been able to put all of that aside to finally enjoy himself, and now it was if he'd passed on his many worries onto one of the people that he owed much gratitude.

Gina snapped back to attention then, realizing that Squall had paused in putting the credits in to wonder if she was okay. _Don't mess this up, Regina. _ She put the smile back on her face and turned back to the game, trying to erase any trace that anything had been bothering her. "Okay, we're going to do slightly harder songs now. You seem to be good enough now to keep up, and I will admit, on some of them I have trouble passing myself... so you'll just have to make sure we both stay in it, okay?"

He put the guitar back over his shoulders and nodded. _She's good at covering her emotions up. _Squall began to wonder just how different she was from himself... or did she just seem the same because she handled certain things like he did? After awhile, he forgot he was thinking about that and allowed himself to get lost back into the world of tri colored lines on the screen. His arm was beginning to ache severely, not only from the past game, but from this "Can't Help Falling In Love With You" song that consisted of nothing but streams of fast strumming.

Sharon got up from the racing game, her butt aching from having sat there for so long. She and Irvine went through other tracks and cars since the first run, and even though there were no other incidents of straight ties at the finish line, the amount of races that they won each had been equal in the end. Walking away, she gawked at how well Zell was STILL playing DDR, even attempting some songs on Standard. _How the hell does he get off being that good at something that took me months to get where he is now?_ She shook her head and noticed that Gina wasn't playing with him anymore, and walked around the arcade to see where she might have gone.

"Well. Would you take a look at that." Irvine spoke up from beside her, nodding in front of them. Sharon blinked at him, and then looked to where he had pointed out and observed Gina and Squall of all people, playing Guitar Freaks and seeming to really get into it. It seemed like whenever she saw Gina and Squall together, he was doing something that he would never have given a second glance, and managed to somewhat enjoy himself while at it. She began to wonder if Gina had some sort of magic touch to bring the angst out of even the angstiest people or something.

"Whew..." a voice said from behind them, and they both turned to see a very sweaty Zell finally detach himself from the DDR machine and plop right down on the floor. "I'm officially broke." He managed a grin. "But that was fun! When I get more money, I'm definitely coming back here again!"

Sharon laughed at the exhausted hyperactive blonde. "Well, you sure would've outlasted me, playing that much for so long. And don't worry about spending so much money; I've been known to spend 30 dollars in a day at the arcade just for DDR when I first discovered it, so I feel ya totally. Just be glad that you can get meal exchanges at school so you don't have to go hungry."

"Speaking of school... what bus were we taking back again?" Irvine inquired. He also noticed how they were now exchanging civil words for the first time in... ever. It almost seemed unnatural, but he figured it was nice for a change. The war could resume tomorrow.

Sharon paused and thought about it. _Kay. The next to last bus gets here around 7:45, and it's now..._ Her eyes widened as she realized the minute hand on her purple Powerpuff Girl watch moved to the 8, meaning...

"SHIT! WE GOTTA BOOK!" She exclaimed, pulling on her Lisa Frank jacket and rushing up to Squall and Gina who were just finishing up their last song. "DUDE! DO YOU KNOW WE HAVE 5 MINUTES TO BUST ASS TO THE BUS STOP BEFORE WE GET LEFT?"

Gina's calm expression slowly melted away to reveal a look that closely resembled the one she made whenever a video game pulled a number on her right before she had a chance of winning. She practically threw the guitar back into the holster and rushed to zip up her jacket, Squall following suit. Moments later, a group of 5 college students came bowling out of the arcade and were running towards the front end of the mall, with Sharon and Zell leading the pack.

Gina huffed and puffed, not used to running this fast. But it was better than being stranded at the mall until the next bus decided to appear at 9 something out in the cold. She looked ahead of her and watched the flirtatious cowboy close the gap between them and the two powerful runners in front of him, holding onto his hat to prevent it from flying off. She couldn't say the same for herself, though. She'd make it, just... a bit behind everyone else. Gina glanced to her side and saw that Squall was running right beside her. She knew he could run just as fast as the rest of them, but for some reason he was matching his pace to hers. _Well... isn't this nice... _One thing was for sure; if coming this close to missing the bus back to GVSU showed these kind of results, then she'd sure as hell be late more often.


	13. Chapter 13

**A/N:** Holy moly, Batman! Sharii snaps out of all the work her professors throw on her to update on teh fanfiction(dot)net! I still have lots to do, but... procrastination rawks!

* * *

Moving the Socom carefully across the screen, Gina paused at a seemingly empty spot on a far away tower. Holding her fire, she waited until she saw a faint black shadow walk across the thin pathway surrounding the building. She pulled the trigger then, and moments later she saw the telltale spurt of blood from the man's head and smiled triumphantly.

She was Paradox, professional sharpshooter.

Okay well, maybe not. She was just Gina, a video game addict that had an extremely high accuracy rate for sniping Russian terrorists in Metal Gear Solid 2. She had a sniper rifle, but why bother with wasting those bullets when one can just use a pistol that wasn't even meant for that purpose? Gina smiled upon thinking about what Sharon would have said if she had seen what she just did, in which she probably would have replied with an innocent "hmm?" that would have sent Sharon into another ramble about how she knew what she had done and acting innocent wasn't going to cover it up.

However, Sharon wasn't at her dorm today; she was probably in her own room knocked out, even at the relatively early time in the evening. She always had a habit of falling asleep at some of the weirdest times, and today at their 5-hour conversational dinner, Sharon's eyes kept drooping down as she struggled to keep talking. Gina had shaken her head at her friend's drowsy condition, and cut the conversation short by about 2 hours and told her friend to go back and get some sleep. She'd probably be up the next day at insane hours, but that wasn't at any surprise.

Gina frowned in frustration as Tiffany turned up the volume on her Hello Kitty TV a notch. It was only one notch... but combined with all the other single notches she turned it up to during the past 10 minutes, it added up. _Why in the HELL does she need the TV that loud! Dear lord, she's seen that damn DVD enough times to know it by heart!_ Gina pointedly turned up HER TV a notch to compensate, even though she knew it would only end up in a volume war in which both TV's drowned out each other. Fortunately, Tiffany didn't notice this, as she was busily going over her notes for her Criminal Justice class. She switched between mumbling lines from the movie to calling out random vocabulary words, all while annoying Gina more.

Tiffany really should be given a trophy for her ability to multitask, seeing as though most people probably couldn't study for tests and still be immersed in a DVD enough to quote the script perfectly. But Gina hated how she just had to do everything out loud. It was hell trying to keep to herself when she had to keep hearing an essay being rattled off loudly or her own narration of whatever she was watching at the time. Gina took it out on the rush of attack personnel that bombarded Solid Snake then, since somewhere between getting pissed off at Tiffany and sniping she had alerted the enemy to her presence. God, she needed to get out of that room.

A knock on the door sounded then, and Tiffany yelled that it was open. The door flew open, and a panicked looking Zell came bounding in, much to Gina's surprise.

"Hi Tiff where's Gina I need to talk to her right now and it's important oh never mind there she is!" Zell rattled off in one breath.

Gina paused the game and hopped off of her bed. "What's up? Did something happen?" She asked concernedly.

"He probably wants a booty call but can't say it in front of me." Tiffany piped up, turning a page in her pink notebook without looking up.

That comment was totally uncalled for. Not to mention it's embarrassing. "What the HELL? TIFFANY, ZELL IS NOT LIKE THAT, AND NEITHER AM I, SO COULD YOU PLEASE CONTINUE WATCHING YOUR FRICKEN DVD AND LEAVE ME ALONE!" Gina sputtered. This is why she tried to always meet someone of the male species somewhere else besides her dorm when Tiffany was around, because if she wasn't being nosy, then she always made comments like the last one that usually sent them running off or feeling pretty uncomfortable.

"Well, someone has to guide you along to womanhood. You can't act like a guy forever, because then you'll never get a boyfriend and I'd feel responsible." Tiffany replied, still looking at her notes but not doing too well at hiding a mischievous smile, knowing that she was just pushing every button Gina had on her.

_I wonder if Sharii feels this way whenever Irvine pisses her off. _"I did not ASK for your 'concern', thank you very much."

"God, Gina, you're always such a prude."

She thought she felt a vein pop in her neck somewhere. Gina didn't get angry like Sharon did very often, but when she did... it was ugly. "I... am... NOT... A PRUDE! OH MY FRICKEN..." She stopped herself and rubbed her temples while turning around abruptly and opening her dorm door. "C'mon Zell, we can talk outside away from NOSY PINK PEOPLE!" Zell nodded soundlessly, his face turning bright red in embarrassment at what Tiffany was implying.

Once out in the hallway and down to the lobby, both of them had gotten over themselves enough to actually get to the point.

"I saw Squall leave with Seifer awhile ago." Zell told her. "Umm, I don't think whatever they're going to do involves things like playing video games or anything, because Seifer had this smirk on his face and Squall left looking really ticked off."

Gina blinked. _Seifer._ She'd almost forgotten that he was here, since she and Sharon had been spending most of their time with the less domineering FFVIII group. "Well, maybe they just left to go practice sword fighting or something..."

"At night? I don't think so..." Zell thought for a moment, and then a light bulb seemed to go off in his head. "I remember now! After calling me a chicken-wuss once again, I got so mad that I forgot what he said after that."

"Which was..."

"Something about how he and his 'friend' were going to have a friendly toast for good luck in the festival tomorrow."

_Toast? As in French toast? No wait, that's not right... he was... oh, no..._ "DUDE! THEY'RE TOO YOUNG TO DRINK ALCOHOL! IT'S ILLEGAL! Not to mention we can't do that on campus anyway!" Gina panicked. "Umm... call GVSU Security and have Seifer written up!"

Zell bit his lip. "Uh... well, that wouldn't really help, because Seifer's IN GVSU Security."

_Shit. Shit shit SHIT!_ "Where did they go? We gotta stop Squall from doing anything stupid just to show Seifer up, because knowing them, he'd be the one getting caught and expelled!" Gina turned around in a circle, as if to wondering whether to rush back to her room or just go straight to wherever they had gone to. "Where'd they go? Do you know?"

"Probably to the housing unit across from here, cause I think that's where Seifer stays... yeah... I think..."

"WELL OKAY LET'S GO RIGHT NOW!" Gina grabbed Zell's arm much like the day Zell grabbed her own when Einstein Bagels Bros had that free hot dog special, and rushed towards the front doors of her building, forgetting she didn't even grab a coat or anything.

So thankfully it was a good thing that she bumped right into Irvine then.

The cowboy stumbled backwards a bit, then regained his footing. "Whoa, there." he said good-naturedly. "Where's the fire?"

"Across the street." Gina replied breathlessly. "So we have to go, now. Wait... why are you here, anyway?"

"Oh, I called him up and told him just before coming to tell you. I forgot to tell him what they were planning to do, but he figured he'd be over anyway to try to break anything up, seeing as though neither of them would probably listen to me." Zell explained.

"Okay. Need to work fast. Must run." Gina rushed to the doors, then turned and double backed to her dorm room. "MUST CALL SHARII!"

"Wait wait wait!" Zell stopped her. "We don't really have all that time to get her, since they left some time ago and probably are already getting started."

Gina half pouted in her frenzied state. What was she going to do for an anchor to keep her calm then? "Yeah, you're right... okay well, let's just get out of here..."

Irvine noticed her disappointment. "I'll go get her. You guys go and try to intercept whatever is going to happen between those two." He turned and pushed open the first set of double doors.

Gina blinked. "Wait, you don't know where she lives!"

"Oh, yes I do." Irvine replied with a wink and walked to the outside.

"... she's going to kill him... Oh my god..." Gina buried her head into her palm. This was beginning to be too much for what was supposed to be a relaxing Friday evening.

Zell grabbed her other hand. "Well, if that happens, one good thing that'll come out of it is the fact that we wouldn't have to hear them bicker anymore." He said in an effort to cheer her up. "But at any rate, let's go!"

* * *

Anne packed up her green book bag as quietly as she could, so as not to disturb her sleeping roommate. Although it seemed as if nothing ever woke her up, she didn't want to take any chances. She moved to her computer and was shutting it down when there was a knock at the door. Thinking it was her boyfriend Paul to pick her up, she shouldered her book bag and opened the door.

"Hello, miss." the guy she'd recognized from awhile back tipped his hat to her. "It seems as though I'm not the only good-looking guy coming to your room tonight." He smiled and stepped back to reveal Paul standing a little ways to the left. "It took some talking on my behalf to convince him that I wasn't here to steal you away."

_Charming._ Anne returned his smile with her own. "Well, I'm just glad Paul didn't hurt you. He can be bad sometimes." She let the door close behind her. "Oh, and Sharon's asleep right now, so if you wanted to see her, I'm afraid you'll have to come back when she's conscious."

_Sleeping? At this time?_ Irvine shrugged it off. "That's alright. I'm on special orders from Gina to wake her up." He gave another grin and a hat tip to them both before opening the door and slipping inside.

Sharon rolled over so she was face down in her pillow. It was getting to the point where she slept enough that her body was revolting in order to make her wake up. But Sharon was too lazy to get up, and she tried to force drowsiness back on herself by constantly twisting and turning. Thankfully she rarely slept under the covers because it was always really warm in the dorm, so she didn't get tangled up in them and possibly inadvertently choke herself.

Irvine watched this struggle with sleep, quite amused. At first, he was wondering how exactly he was going to wake her up, but at that rate he probably didn't have to. Suddenly, he saw Sharon sit straight up in her bed with an annoyed look on her face, staring forward towards the window. Still not noticing that there was someone else in the room, she yawned and rubbed her eyes, then patted around the mattress for her glasses.

Realizing that she was probably dead blind without them, Irvine had to keep himself from bursting out laughing and blowing his cover. He reached over and took them from the dresser right at the foot of her bed, and put them in a place where she'd find them on the comforter. Soon, her hand brushed the familiar outline of her frames and she slipped them on her face and got up.

_Goddamn. What time is it? _Sharon blinked and squinted, then jumped at the figure standing next to her. "Oh my GOD, Anne you scared the crap out of..." her eyes focused, then she thought she noticed the outline of a figure in a cowboy hat. _Oh god, no..._ she whipped her glasses off of her face and took the edge of her short black tank top to wipe off her lenses, then she put them back on her face.

Sharon screamed bloody murder.

Irvine winced and covered his ears. "Holy crap, woman! You want to disturb half the building with that scream or what?"

The first thing she sees when she wakes up should NOT be Irvine Kinneas. She already tends to wake up in a foul, incoherent state, and seeing her mortal enemy where her roommate should be was NOT pretty. Half wondering whether she was still asleep and it was all a very bad dream, she went into a frenzy and pounced on him like a rabid wolf.

"Whoa!" Irvine tripped backwards and landed back first on Anne's gray sheets, trying to shield his face from the battering of hands Sharon was unleashing onto him. "If you wake up like this every day, then I feel really bad for your roommate!"

Sharon responded by punching him in the chest furiously, still half out of it, but quickly coming to her senses. "HOW... IN THE FUCK... DID YOU GET IN HERE! YOU STUPID, STUPID PIECE OF SHIT! GOD, I HATE YOU!"

"Your roommate was kind enough to let me in when she... OW! Okay, now if you keep this up, you might actually draw blood..."

"GOOD! BECAUSE YOU DESERVE TO DIE! I WILL NOT STOP UNTIL I SEE YOUR VERY FLESH RIPPED FROM EVERY SINGLE BONE IN YOUR MEANINGLESS BODY!"

Okay, so she had officially snapped. Maybe it was his fault for sneaking in. He knew that she wouldn't greet him warmly, but this was ridiculous. He didn't know if she would comprehend anything he said in his defense, so Irvine did the first thing that came to mind.

Reaching up to grab her head, he pulled it down and met her lips in a crushing kiss.

Sharon's eyes popped wide open. If she needed any help getting to be more alert, then Folgers had NOTHING on that. That was the SECOND time he pulled a stunt like that, and each time it caused her brain to grind to a stop. When he finally released her, she blinked twice, then stumbled off of him and backed up to the dresser behind her as if she'd been hit. Clenching her fists once her brain started functioning again, she went around and started pulling on the stubborn closet door that belonged to her roommate, vowing to find Anne's sword and leave horrible blood stains all over the carpet that she would probably be charged up her ass for once GVSU found out. Not to mention serving life in prison for first-degree murder.

Scrambling to his feet when he realized what she was probably going for, Irvine rushed up to her. "Now wait a minute! I have a message from Gina that should be delivered before you think about killing me!"

Sharon stopped and looked at him, the mention of her best friend's name automatically bringing her out of her fit of uncontrollable rage. "Gina? What happened?"

"Something's happening between Squall and Seifer, and she rushed out to go stop whatever they had planned before it got too dangerous. I think she wanted you to come with her, so that's why I'm here..." he paused, then added, "However, if you would like to have an appointment for another kinky make-out session, then I'll check my planner and see if I can fit you in."

Sharon let out a low growl, the smoldering flames of her anger quickly reigniting. "You should have shut the fuck up while you had the chance, cowboy." She almost went back to digging around for that sword, until she realized that if she killed him, then she'd never find out where Gina went. That would be no good. Breathing in slowly and exhaling, she slammed the closet door shut and went to her own closet and opened that one instead. Wondering if she had another dangerous type of weapon in that closet, Irvine almost broke for the door in a run until he saw that she was pulling out a set of clothes to throw on. She bundled them up in a ball and stalked to the bathroom door to change, then thought against it and walked back to her computer chair and tossed the clothes there before looking up at him.

"Would you like to help me get ready?" she asked him sweetly.

This time, it was Irvine's turn to have his brain freeze. _What? Did she just... did she just ask me to... _His mouth opened and closed like a goldfish, shocked into being mute for a moment.

Sharon smiled seductively and took steps toward him, causing him to back up unconsciously towards the dorm door. He didn't know whether she was serious, or had a knife behind her back waiting to stab him when she got within arms length. Realizing that he couldn't back up any further, he looked at her uncertainly as she got closer, then reached out and grabbed his collar, pulling him forward so that their noses were almost touching. He sucked in a sharp breath.

Sharon winked evilly. "...you wish."

With that, he found himself being pushed forcefully out of the now open door, with Sharon standing on the other side, looking quite victorious. "So, if you don't mind, I'll go get changed. If you would be a dear and wait in the downstairs lobby like a good young man, then I shall be there in just a moment." The sound of the door being closed startled him out of his shocked daze, and then clear his throat and straighten his coat and hat. Sharon seemed to be on a winning streak so far, and if Irvine wanted to keep his narrowing lead, he'd have to come up with something soon.

* * *

**HailfireSano:** Yep, expect to see the rest of the crew coming in. Part of the reason why this fiction is so long is because I got distracted having so much fun with the handful of characters I started with that it took me awhile to get off my ass and include the rest of the crew. You're not the only one who asked for the other characters, but just hang tight for a few more chapters! -puppy dog look-

**QueenAdreena:** Yes, back then, I sure was obsessed with DDR. I bet you couldn't tell! LOL Now, I don't really play it anymore since I'm into Para Para dancing now (which is also a Bemani game, but it was an actual dance before it was made into a game, and I'm learning it from outside of the Bemani video game perspective). If you want, I can steer the sweaty Zell over to your house so he can use your shower? -wink wink nudge nudge-

**Elisha:** I'm so glad I made you laugh with this sorry excuse for a fanfiction I have! As a little tidbit, every single chapter I wrote (or almost every one), I made sure that I was cracking up by the time I finished it. So if someone else finds it as humorous as I do, then I guess I've done my job. hehe. Later on, I'll actually bring in some drama, but for now I was just having fun writing out random scenarios that make no sense.


	14. Chapter 14

Gina paced back and forth nervously in front of a closed dorm door. It was indeed Seifer's room, but upon running up the flights of stairs and getting there, she started to rethink what she was going to do. Gina wasn't even entirely sure of what she COULD do, and she didn't want to get killed storming in the room. What if Squall wasn't even in there in the first place? Then how could she explain barging in on him with a "chicken-wuss" in tow? It could end up being very, very bad for both of them.

Zell watched the girl in front of him practically wear a hole in the floor. They'd only arrived a couple of minutes ago, but he didn't know how long Gina was planning on stalling.

"Umm... maybe we should just... go back?" Zell offered. "I'm sorry this whole situation upsets you, but we're really not going to be any good just sitting here. They'll be fine... I hope."

Gina stopped pacing. "Yeah... maybe they will." Then she stopped. She was allowing herself to be chickened out by all of this, and she wanted for once in her life to step up to something she normally wouldn't do. "No... no! Who knows what might be happening behind that door! Seifer has Squall on a leash of anger, and he knows how to pull it! If nobody stops them, who will?"

She had a point. Zell started to reply to that when footsteps interrupted him. Looking towards where they came from, Gina's face quickly melted from one of worry to one of extreme relief. "Sharii-chan!"

Sharon reached where they were standing quickly, hugging Gina while Irvine appeared next, moving to stand next to Zell. "G-fuu! What's going on, guys?"

"Seifer is going to get Squall wasted!" Gina wailed, clinging to her friend's Lisa Frank jacket.

"... so? You had Mr. Bitchass over here wake me up just to tell me about something everyday college students have fun doing from time to time?"

"This is Seifer and Squall, not your local fraternity having a daily liquor bash." Irvine pointed out. "Gina has a reason to be worried right now."

Sharon blinked. "Hmm... that's right. Well... what are we going to do about it?"

Zell grinned sheepishly. "Uh... we don't know yet."

"... well. First things first, you actually have to make sure they're actually getting drunk. Rule number one; innocent until proven guilty." She moved towards the door and raised her fist to knock.

Gina's eyes bugged. "But rule number two is that you can't search without a warrant!"

Too late. Sharon already started banging on the door. After waiting a couple of moments with no reply, she frowned and banged on it again, only harder. If she was going to get scared awake, then it'd BETTER be for a good damn reason. She almost started pounding again when the door swung open and revealed a tipsy, but annoyed as hell looking Seifer. Gina almost ran away.

"What in the hell are you doing?" He demanded, his speech a bit slurred.

Sharon lifted an eyebrow. She wasn't going to answer someone who's on their way to being piss drunk. She used her arm to push him aside and strode into the room. The three outside blinked at her audacity and looked at each other before following her in, avoiding Seifer's incredulous gaze.

Squall was sitting at a table that had been pulled out, patiently waiting for his rival's return. He looked up and was more than surprised to see Sharon bending down in front of him, with four fingers held up on her right hand.

"How many fingers am I holding up, Squall?"

"..."

Sharon stood up and brushed off her pants. "Okay. He's fine. If he tried to answer, then that's when I would know he was drunk."

Gina really didn't buy that philosophy. She looked over concernedly at the silent figure. Then her eyes drifted to what was on the table in front of him.

"AAHHH! What are they drinking!"

Sharon looked back down to the table and picked up a large clear bottle of liquor. Her face fell as she read the label. "What the fuck. They're drinking straight 151. Someone call a fucking ambulance." From experience with some of her friends back home, she knew first hand of the potency of Barcardi 151, and that was when it was mixed with other drinks to dull its punch. For them to be drinking it straight would knock over an elephant, and for a moment she was quite impressed at how both of the guys were still conscious after nearly finishing half a bottle.

Seifer appeared behind her and reached over her head to grab the bottle out of her hands, then moved back to a chair seated directly across from Squall. "So, Puberty Boy, looks like we have an audience." He filled up two shot glasses and placed the bottle down before pushing one of them at his rival. "Bottoms up."

Squall emotionlessly picked up his glass. "Cheers."

Irvine twitched as both of them downed the shots and slammed the glasses down on the table, staring at each other without blinking. "God, these macho competitions sure do get retarded. I wonder how many they've had before we got here."

"However many it was, it's enough to clear half the bottle so far." Zell replied, eyeing the two. "Look... just promise me that you and Sharon won't be reduced to doing stuff like this, okay?"

Sharon walked over to them. "I'm not as stupid as I look, so you don't have to worry about that from me."

Seifer eyed the brown haired man sitting across from him. "How lucky do you feel for tomorrow's festival?"

"Luckier than you feel right about now." Squall replied shortly.

Seifer countered that with a loud laugh, and poured another drink. "Well then, I guess that calls for another toast, don't you think?"

Squall shrugged. "Whatever."

Just as they were going to lift their glasses for another brave drink, Seifer's head fell forward and landed on the table.

The whole room stared at him for a second, and after a few moments they could hear him snoring rather loudly. Sharon stepped forward and nudged him, and when he didn't move to swat her away, she waved her arms out like a referee. "And HE'S DOWN!"

Zell rushed over to the table. "Hey buddy, you feeling okay?"

Squall switched his gaze from the unconscious Seifer to Zell. "I'm fine." He pushed back his chair and stood up.

"Well, at least one of them's all right." Irvine said, stepping forward. "Now we can focus on cleaning up this incriminating evidence and getting big boy here to his bed." He bent down and draped one of Seifer's arms over his shoulders. "Hey Zell, I need your help with the other side."

As Zell came over and was taking care of Seifer's other arm, a loud thump came from the doorway. Everyone looked up to see Squall sprawled out on the floor, looking dazed as if all of the alcohol he had consumed rushed his brain in one fell swoop.

Sharon couldn't help it; she burst out laughing. "Oh my GOD this is so awesome!" She cracked up. "Squall Leonhart is fucking WASTED!"

Gina, on the other hand, was looking mighty horrified and rushed over to help Squall up. "Squall? Squall? Are you okay? Can you hear me?"

Irvine sighed. "Great. Now BOTH of them are incapacitated. Why don't you two help Squall back to his dorm while trying not to look suspicious, while Zell and I stay here and take care of him for awhile."

Gina was already on it. Squall managed to stand up almost on his own, and then wobbled to the left, then to the right. He blinked and shook his head to try to clear his vision, and that only gave him another wave of drunkenness as he started slipping to the floor again. Sharon and Gina both grabbed opposite arms and pulled him upright.

"Okay. If you can comprehend anything, I want you to try and look as sober as possible for the trek back to Swanson." Sharon told him slowly and clearly, opening the door. "All we need is to run into GVSU security while you're piss drunk. Gina and I are here with you, okay?" Squall nodded slowly, and the three of them walked out of the room, with Gina taking the job of looking around in pure paranoia for anything that even halfway looked like a security person.

Eventually, they made it back to the room Zell and Squall shared, and at least Squall was able to unlock his own door before almost falling forward into it. They ushered the drunken gunblade master to his bed, where he gladly collapsed back first and put an arm over his eyes to block out the light.

Gina nervously looked down at him. "Is he going to be alright?"

Sharon nodded. "He should be. He's not throwing up or anything, so I guess that's a good sign. However... we have to try to keep him awake for as long as possible. If he falls asleep, then the alcohol won't have a chance to get through his system as quickly and he could get alcohol poisoning." Gina looked at her fearfully. "It's okay though, we shouldn't panic, because he hasn't shown signs of any of that yet."

"But what about Seifer? He's knocked out!"

"... fuck. That's right. And those two up there probably don't hang around drunks like I do to know about all of that." Sharon went for the door. "Okay, I leave you to Squall. Give him water and make sure he drinks it until it at LEAST equals the amount you estimate he drank in liquor tonight. It'll make him piss like a race horse, but it'll help flush out his system quicker." She left then, the door clicking into place.

Gina stared at the door for a couple of seconds more before grabbing a chair from a desk and pulling it up next to Squall's bed and sitting down. After awhile, she began nervously drumming her palms on her lap as she usually did when she was panicked, along with twitching her leg. _Okay, okay, Regina... don't freak out. Just stay calm. What did Sharii say? Water. Water is good. _Gina jumped to her feet and went outside to the vending machines right across from their door and bought a 24 oz bottle of Aquafina, and came back into the room to check if Squall had fallen asleep.

No sign of any movement since they initially came in.

Gina gulped and moved back towards the bedside, not knowing really what to do or say. "Umm... Squall? It's Gina... even though you... probably know that already. Uh... Sharii left, but she told me to tell you to drink water... because it's good for you. Yeah." She held out the bottle of water to the laid out figure on the bed.

For a minute, Squall didn't move, and Gina was scared that he fell asleep or his heart stopped beating or something. She didn't know if rapid alcohol consumption caused a heart attack of any sort, but with Gina's rampant imagination for the worst possible scenarios, it was a valid enough reason for worry. Reaching up with his free arm, Squall reached out for the bottle and grabbed it, then put the bottle to his lips only to find out the cap was still on. Gina spazzed and grabbed the bottle back, took off the cap, then shakingly gave it back to him. He then took a swig, and sat up coughing almost immediately.

"Uh, yeah... you might wanna, uh... sit up when you... drink... yeah..." Squall squinted at her while drinking the water, and after awhile he came up for air. Gina sat there for a minute, still thumping her leg, then took the bottle from him as he laid back down and replaced his arm over his eyes.

Gina looked at him for another second before realizing that the reason his arm was over his eyes was because the bright overhead light was on. She should've realized it sooner, seeing as though it's something she often does when she gets her migraines. Stumbling up to the light switch, Gina turned it off, leaving the lights outside and the single night-light plugged into the wall to softly illuminate the room. She moved back to her chair and sat down, not knowing exactly what to do with him, but at the same time not wanting to leave. If she had to, she'd sit there till daybreak to make sure he was okay.

Looking down at her hands still drumming on her lap, Gina tried to stop her nervous twitching. The noise was probably going to start annoying him after awhile, and that was something that she definitely didn't want to do. Not that he'd start hitting her or anything, but Gina just didn't want to do anything to make whatever he was going through even worse. As it was, he was probably going to have a major hangover in the morning, and she prayed that the festival was at least held in the afternoon so he'd have some time to recover. Gina pictured both Squall and Seifer fighting drunk with swords, and flinched.

Then she started feeling really stupid sitting there next to Squall's bed not doing anything but looking at him or at her hands. She wanted to make sure he was okay, but that didn't help her feel any less awkward.

"... I hope you're not worried about me."

Gina looked up quickly to the figure on the bed. _He was talking, which was good, because that means he's awake_. "Umm... well... I'd be sorta lying if I said I wasn't, because I'm paranoid and I don't want anything to happen to you. You or Seifer, for that matter."

Squall uncovered his eyes and looked over to the blur he made out to be Gina. Everything seemed to move in slow motion, but he was glad that the light was finally out so his head didn't have to make it out to be as bright as the sun. _Hyne, I'll never do something like that again._

"Well... umm... I won't go lecturing you on the effects that alcohol has on the brain or anything, because I uh... don't really know all of them anyway so why should I tell you half information?" Gina laughed nervously. "Oh yeah, and you'd probably not want to hear about it anyway because... yeah... it would suck... because... it would... and... yes... ahahe..." This was getting awful. A half conscious Squall reduced her to a babbling child.

"What did you mean that day in the bookstore?" Squall suddenly asked.

"Uh... what day... oh, the day we were at the mall? Umm... what did I say again?"

"About angst."

Gina died. Okay, well maybe she was still breathing, but she's glad she didn't have to be rationally calm to make her heart function correctly, otherwise she probably WOULD have been dead on the spot. _Shit. I hope he's not talking about..._ "I ... said.. what ... I meant." She lamely stated.

Squall laid on his back for another second, then sat up, even though it caused the room to spin horridly and he had to close his eyes to make it stop. Gina reached out and put a hand on his shoulder. "Okay, maybe you shouldn't sit up unless you absolutely have to..."

"You... you didn't say all that you wanted to say." Was his reply.

Gina had another mental heart attack. "Umm... I don't really know what you're getting at..."

"Say what you meant."

"I... I don't know what I meant. It's not important... nope, it's not. Because... I can't remember it anyway... I had to ask you for confirmation, right? So... I obviously don't know..."

"Yes, you do."

_Damn, what the fuck is this, persecutor Leonhart?_ Gina panicked. There was no WAY she was telling him that she thought he was quite attractive when angsty. It was bad enough that she had almost let it slip in the first place. Of course, he was probably on a totally different brainwave than the one she was on at that moment, but rationality ceases to set in when one already tends to be paranoid. _Maybe I should make up something... but I'm a bad liar and he'd know something is up then... crap!_ She didn't care if he was drunk or asleep or whatever. She bit her lip to keep her chin from shaking as she looked back into Squall's slightly hazy, but still very alert crystal eyes that were awaiting an answer she wasn't even about to give.

"I..."

The door to the room whipped open then, and Zell came in and flipped on the overhead light, causing Squall to moan and lie back down immediately, going back to covering his eyes with his arm. Gina stood up, really grateful for the interruption. "So... how is Seifer?"

Zell scratched his head. "He's coherent, that's for sure." He grinned. "The first thing he said was 'chicken-wuss' when he opened his eyes and saw me, and then yelled at everyone to get the hell out of his room. I swear, that'll be the ONLY time I'll be glad to hear those two words come out of his mouth." He looked at Squall. "Is he okay?"

"Uh, he was until you turned on the light." Gina smiled, and went to leave. "I'll be going back to my room now. I think I left Metal Gear Solid 2 playing, and I don't trust Tiffany with my game system one bit."

"Oh, yeah. Well, thanks for all your help, and hopefully we'll both be up to see the festival tomorrow." Zell went forward and hugged her. "Without your sense and Sharon's audacity, who knows what might have happened."

Gina smiled and nodded, waving at Zell before letting the door close behind her. It'd be a miracle if they were both sober enough to do anything tomorrow, but if they were, then she'd definitely be there.


	15. Chapter 15

**A/N:** I need to be more consistent with my updates. I know I'm not the only one who is a compulsive fanfiction(dot)net checker, hehe.

* * *

Gina and Sharon trudged through the blanket of snow, getting across campus to Kirkoff on a dreary Saturday afternoon. They inwardly were wishing that they didn't live so far on the other end, because on cold days like these when they had to make the trip for whatever reason, it always seemed a lot farther than what it was. Today was the festival, and even though slight snow flurries were littering the campus, it wasn't bad enough to postpone the event like the previous week.

Gina had stopped by Squall and Zell's dorm before leaving out to pick up Sharon, and Zell said that Squall was doing okay, despite a lingering headache. As it was, she knew that nothing was going to stop him from participating that day, even if he was still drunk and stumbling all over the place.

"I don't understand guys at all." Gina said out loud, pulling her scarf tighter around her neck to keep the cold air from chilling her.

"Tell me about it. You have arrogant assholes like Seifer, angsty quiet ones like Squall, hyper ones like Zell, and then the kind that should have never been born on the planet Earth because they're too dumb to be taking up air that other smart people could be using." Sharon rambled.

Gina chuckled. "I guess Irvine belongs to that category, huh?"

"Dur. Who else would I be referring to?"

Gina shook her head and squinted forward to see the clock tower that was stationed right in front of the Kirkoff Center. A banner advertising the event was strung across one side of it, decorated with lots of ren-faire designs. A couple of people that were dressed up in their garb were waving down random people, promoting the festival as well. Sharon gave them props for having the dedication to do something like this in the cold weather, because she remembered doing something like that with Anne in the fall, and the thin clothing did nothing to protect her from the bitter winds.

They took a detour inside the large building to get warm before heading back out to the field that stretched around Kirkoff, where the event was being held. Sharon took the red hat that Gina gave her off of her head and plopped down in one of the couches. Gina sat in an armchair next to the couch and looked around the huge lobby area of the place, catching quite a few others in garb.

"Man. I wonder what kinda outfit Squall is dressed up in." Gina wondered.

"Ha! I bet he just annoyed the whole ren-faire crew with his 'whatever' and found a way to convince them all that his usual leather outfit was enough traditional garb for him." Sharon replied, then answered the question seriously. "But, I guess it would have to depend on what he was using in the sword fight. If it's just regular fencing, then I think they'd be using things like kendo sticks to beat each other down, and it wouldn't require any special protection. But I've seen a few events where knights come out in full armor and swing the real deal around, but they're usually veterans that have been doing that sort of thing for years. Rookies don't mess with that kind of stuff."

"Yah, but we've kinda been though this before. Squall and Seifer are ANYTHING but rookies."

"I know, but... I don't think the ren-faire people would chance putting them in something expert like that if they just joined the damn thing. I don't care if they can sword fight while standing on their heads in a pink tutu."

"That would be kinda funny though." Both girls looked up at the new voice to see Zell trotting over, munching on a caramel apple. "What's up? Glad to see you both made it."

Sharon laughed. "Yeah, glad to see you're wearing that damn coat again, instead of freezing your ass off."

Zell grinned and crashed on the couch. "If I'm gonna be standing around watching Squall and Seifer beat the crap out of each other, then I'm gonna be warm while doing it." He took another big bite out of the apple. "Dude, these things are almost as addictive as hot dogs."

"Do you know what Squall and Seifer are going to be in when they fight? Like... in terms of category or what?" Gina asked the blonde.

Zell paused for a moment. "Well... I don't really know. I just thought it was all the same thing, ya know? Knowing those two, I don't think they'd ever enter something that didn't involve metal clashing against metal."

"Well... okay... what was Squall wearing when he left?"

"Black. What else?" He laughed. "I guess it had to be sorta in whatever dress code they have to be in for these things, but it was still all black. He had on some cool lace up boots, though."

Sharon sighed. This whole thing wasn't really getting them anywhere. She stood up and stretched a bit, before pulling the hat back on her head. "Well, let's go see if they've started that competition up out back, and we can see for ourselves."

Soon, they were back outside in the cold winter air, this time with Zell in tow. The wind had stopped blowing as hard, so it gave them slight relief from the weather. Sharon began to really wish she had took up her mom's offer to wear a very heavy leather jacket, lined with what felt like pounds of fur. But, she didn't think that it would be THAT cold in Allendale, so she declined and left the much-needed coat 3 hours behind in Detroit.

"I think I shall write in to Lisa Frank and urge them to make winter wear." Sharon's teeth chattered as they walked across the grass until they came to a small roped off area, where a pair was already sparring off with their kendo sticks, fencing through the bitter cold.

"Yeah, I'm wearing a jacket much heavier than yours, and I'm still feeling this cold air." Gina sympathized, looking on through the small crowd. It seemed like everyone else was just as cold, and moved around often to keep the blood moving through their bodies. "How in the heck can they continue doing this kind of thing?"

Zell crunched on what was left of his apple. "They just don't feel it. Of course, we feel it cause we're not doing anything, but if you're really focused on what you're doing at the time, you just faze it out. Although right now, I wish that I was doing what they were, cause I hate freezing my butt off."

Gina turned to him. "Why didn't you?"

Zell made a face and shook his head. "Nah. Swords aren't my thing. If I can't beat them up with my fists, then it's not worth it. But people like Squall make it seem cool."

"So, he's done stuff like this before?" Sharon asked innocently.

"Yeah... you could say that..." Zell trailed off mysteriously, causing Gina and Sharon to trade knowing glances. Then, they heard a call for hot apple cider, and they all whipped around excitedly.

"Awww yeah! Cider is the bizzo-" Sharon cut herself off when she realized it wasn't a vendor, but Irvine who was somehow balancing cups of cider without spilling it on himself. "... okay, you know what? Never mind. He probably poisoned them."

"Now why would I do something like that?" Irvine said, while Gina helped relieve him of the cups. "I can't be nice?"

"No."

Gina rolled her eyes and held out a cup to her best friend. "Okay, well, you can drink your poison and be warm. If he really did do anything to them, then he risks poisoning us all, not just you." Sharon pursed her lips stubbornly for a few more moments before taking the cup and sipping on it cautiously, eyeballing Irvine the whole time.

Zell bravely took a gulp of the still steaming cider and turned his attention back to the ring in the snow. "Wow, I didn't know they allowed guys to fight girls in this. That's awesome!"

Sharon looked to where he was indicating, and immediately smiled. "DUDE! That's my roommate Anne, and she's just about to lay the smack down on her boyfriend Paul." She raised her cup up and shouted, "WHOOOOO! KICK HIS ASS, ANNE! YOU'RE MY AMERICAN IDOL!"

Irvine blinked. "You know, I'm beginning to wonder whether she finds violence sexy."

She twitched, and turned around. "You want to find out? I'd be GLAD to throw your wimpass into that ring and be able to beat the crap out of you with either a kendo stick OR a real sword without being dragged the fuck off of this campus for abuse."

Gina tried her best to ignore the usual string of witty comebacks and scathing remarks Sharon and Irvine never failed to trade, and watched Anne lunge her stick repeatedly at Paul, who moved or blocked them accordingly. Then she let her eyes wander off to the sides where other fighters were watching intently, probably to get pointers for their own fighting style, seeing as though Anne and Paul were some of the best in their division. Then she saw Squall.

Gina spat out the mouthful of cider and waved frantically at Sharon, who was still fuming at the cowboy in front of her. "SHARII-CHAN! LOOK, LOOK! I THINK IT'S SQUALL!"

Sharon gave a final glare and turned back around, and spotted Mr. Silent Angst off to the side, getting suited up in what seemed like tons of metal armor. "Dear lord... he IS gonna do the real thing..." she scanned the rest of the crowd for Seifer, and spotting him on the other side of the ring, getting metal bracers tied onto his wrists. "This is unbelievable. I didn't think they'd let them do this so early on..."

Zell shrugged and took another swig of cider. "Doesn't really surprise me. They're better than what they let on."

"But... they shouldn't ... oh, whatever." Sharon stopped trying to rationalize and continued sipping on her cider. _This'll sure be something entertaining to watch._

Anne and Paul finished up their spar, getting claps from almost everyone for a job well done. Then, the ringleader announced that they'd be having the privilege of seeing a knight's match, and for the first time in the GVSU ren-faire's history, it'd be performed by two of the newest members of the group that seemed to possess extraordinary sword fighting skills. Gina found herself getting as wound up as if she was waiting in line for a roller coaster, tapping her foot and switching her gaze between Squall and Seifer as they got into the ring. _I actually get to see them fight, in real life..._

"GO SQUALL! IT'S YA BIRTHDAY! WE GONNA PARTY LIKE IT'S YA BIRTHDAY! WE GONNA DRINK BACARDI LIKE ITS... oh wait, they already did that yesterday... heh..." Sharon cut off her rally with a sheepish grin.

Meanwhile, in the ring, Seifer took the long sword that was handed to him, and turned towards Squall with a smirk before flipping the metal helmet down on his head. Squall's eyes flashed at the slight taunt, before he too fitted the helmet over his head and picked up his weapon. The ringleader lifted a small rag, then swished it through the air to signify the start of the match. Almost immediately, the two armored fighters clashed together in a deadlock, before pushing each other off and continuing the fight.

Sharon took a glance over at Gina, who was looking at the whole thing unfold like she was in heaven. Irvine and Zell were watching as well, but their eyes seemed to hold the same look of nonchalance as if it happened every day. _I wonder how many times they've seen this kind of thing go down? I guess if they really do come from a world where their backyards have the potential to become monster battlegrounds, then this sort of thing would be nothing._

Gina didn't know if anyone else could see it, but looking at the match between the two men becoming more and more heated as time went by, she could really tell that the two had a history together. Both of them used the style she recognized from the video game, just using slightly different weapons. The crowd seemed to be really into it, using the fuel from their rivalry to cheer as if it was a football match. Of course, she was inwardly cheering for Squall, but Seifer wasn't going to go down easily, as he was putting up a good counter to almost every one of Squall's lunges.

"They're looking kinda tired, now." Zell broke the silence. "That's unusual for them."

Sharon nodded. "Yeah well, wearing like, 20 lbs of armor while swinging those swords around like a bat out of hell will get you tired. They're probably not used to being weighed down by all of that... and looks like they're going to take a break."

"I... don't think so, Sharii-chan..." Gina spoke up. They paused long enough for Seifer to pull the helmet off of his head, allowing the small flakes of snow to fall almost peacefully on his close-cut blonde hair. Squall removed his as well, tossing it carelessly on the ground next to him. The officials traded glances at this, but decided not to step in because the crowd was as hype as ever, and they seemed to know what they were doing. Seifer shouldered his sword and smirked, and used his free hand to beckon the agitated Squall. The brunet responded by twirling the sword easily before rushing his rival in a full offensive torrent, leaving the other to try his best to parry the hits being thrown at him.

"Hot shit, he's mad." Sharon temporarily forgot about her cider as she watched Squall furiously pummel the blonde into the edge of the ring. The people near that side backed up instinctively from the roped off area, seeing the sparks fly from the weapons being clashed with such force. Seifer, realizing that he was being backed into a corner, dodged off to the side just as Squall lunged at him, and moved back towards the middle of the ring. Squall almost lost his balance because of the momentum he was putting into that one swing, but quickly regained his footing and turned around to catch another smirk from his rival.

"Uh... why isn't Seifer moving to defend himself?" Irvine asked. "Squall's capable of impaling him at this point in time."

Gina started getting a strange feeling in her gut, as she watched Squall pause to catch his breath while Squall stood in the middle, awaiting his next move with his weapon down at his side. _Something's not right..._

Squall braced himself for another dash, not really realizing that Seifer wasn't ready to defend against any attacks. He rushed at him, his eyes focused only on the target in front of him, and lifted his weapon to damn near cleave Seifer in half.

What he got in return was a handful of snow right to the eyes.

Zell crushed his empty cider cup in one hand. "WHAT THE HELL? HE'S CHEATING, THAT BASTARD!"

Sharon wanted to rush in that ring and toss what was left of her drink in Seifer's face, just so he could see what it felt like to have crap thrown in his eyes. The whole crowd gasped at the sudden action, leaving Squall to stumble backwards and rub at his eyes to clear his vision. Seifer's smirk just got wider as he watched him struggle to get his bearings straight, totally off of his guard. Gina breathed a little easier when she saw that Squall was quickly recovering enough to stand up straight and grab his weapon again, but then she looked over and saw Seifer advancing on him, his weapon now drawn and raised above his head in preparation to strike.

Bells and sirens went off in Gina's mind. _Oh, no... ohhhh no..._ The plastic cup she'd been holding onto slipped from her fingers as she froze like a deer caught in headlights, her brain making everything seem like slow motion.

She'd seen it happen a thousand times before.

Too bad Squall never saw it coming.

The blade came down swiftly, striking Squall right between the eyes. A splash of blood stained the pristine white ground below him, and leaked like a river down the creases of his face. Squall stared at the sword in his hands, and watched more drops of blood leak onto the blade and form intricate patterns along its surface. In the background, he could hear the crowd's terrified shrieks, but even clearer he could hear Seifer's triumphant laugh. Realizing that the blood was quickly seeping into his eyes, he used the spurt of anger he had left to grasp the sword and get even with Seifer before the officials rushed forward and dragged them both off.

A perfect arc of snow followed the tip of Squall's sword as he whipped it upwards and sliced Seifer's face exactly where his own injury was, returning the favor with even more force than the previous attack. Startled and caught completely off guard, Seifer slipped backwards and fell to the ground, touching his face in disbelief. The ren-faire personnel seemed to snap to action then, rushing to help up the fallen blonde whose face was also beginning to look as hideously stained as his rival's.

Squall tossed the sword to the ground, showing everyone that he wasn't going to rush Seifer anymore in a frenzy. Seifer was the one who played dirty. His face warmed by the torrent of crimson still seeping from his cut, he turned to walk off before anyone asked if he needed any help. He'd be damned if he let anyone treat him like an invalid. Then, his body seemed to just realize the weight of the armor that was placed on him, and the scenery around him began to spin, then turn black.

* * *

**Aniis:** Thanks for the compliment! Sometimes I think my writing style is too casual... but then again, if I tried to change, then I wouldn't love my mediocre works anymore. Hopefully my story keeps your interest through till the end!

**HailfireSano:** Oh yeah... the drunken Squall is one of my fave chapters. I was laughing so hard while I was writing it that I had to take periodic breaks, because I was visualizing all of it perfectly in my head. Oh, and I only got drunk like that ONCE in my life. Actually... I was more like wasted. XD; I'll share the story because I'm shameless like that and I like to type out my crazy experiences. It was my friend Lauren's 21st birthday, and a group of us gathered at our friend's house to drink. And this was like... hardcore liquor like 151, Rum, Vodka, etc. And every single time someone walked through the kitchen, they had to take a random shot of whatever was out at the time. Unfortunately, we were in one of those houses where the kitchen connects the WHOLE HOUSE, so basically if you got up to move you were entitled to down a shot. So, much like our dear Squall Leonhart, the alcohol hit me in one fell swoop after hours of drinking and not feeling a damn thing, and somehow I staggered for the front door to get some fresh air. Before I knew it, I was face down on the sidewalk and I didn't feel or notice that I had completely missed the porch step and fell. If people didn't notice that I left the front door wide open, then I probably would've stayed out there on my face wondering where the hell I ended up, lol!

That was indeed the last time I EVER get that intoxicated. I didn't throw up or anything (if I ever do throw up because of alcohol, then I will never drink a drop of it again), but that was a bit too wasted a state for me to attempt to re-enact again.


	16. Chapter 16

Gina sat at her computer in the empty dorm room, her eyes scanning over the words of a fanfiction, but not really paying any attention to them. Hell, she couldn't even read FFVIII fiction anymore, and that was her main addiction to the wildly popular fanfiction dot net. What was a girl to do now? Her mind kept zooming back to that fateful festival, and what had happened. She remembered snapping out of her paralysis and rushing over to where Squall had collapsed, only to get to the roped off area and realize that the personnel weren't going to let her by. Even though Gina knew she couldn't do much even if she was allowed to see him, she didn't like feeling helpless in situations like those.

She thought about the first time she and Sharon had noticed the two figures from the video game, and wondered if she could have gone the rest of the semester without noticing them at GVSU. _Probably not,_ she mused. Gina finally admitted to herself that she was tricking her mind into believing that they were just regular students, to help deal with everything better than constantly wondering about just how these sorts of things could happen. But after that fight Squall and Seifer had... it jump-started what she was hiding in her brain; the fact that none of this could happen.

Living in a severed reality wasn't good for someone like Gina. She wanted answers to all of the questions in her mind, but she didn't know where to start, and certainly didn't know how to ask them without arousing suspicion. Moving her mouse up to the X on the right hand side of the IE window, she clicked and pushed her chair back from the desk. Gina enjoyed how quiet it was in her dorm in the afternoon on weekdays, because Tiffany was working at her job in downtown Grand Rapids. Of course, she rarely got to enjoy the time by herself, because normally she would be in class. If she hadn't skipped, that is.

_This is bad, Regina. You should've went to your classes, since finals are quickly approaching and you KNOW they're doing reviews!_ Gina pursed her lip. "... whatever." Standing up, she almost laughed at herself. She managed to talk to herself in a typical Squall-like manner, a habit that greatly increased ever since she started hanging around them. It was an unconscious effort, that's for sure.

Gina stared for a long time at her current desktop, which was a background that Sharon had made a little while back. It featured Leon from Kingdom Hearts, and the background behind the dominant figure was filled with faded, tiny screenshots of not only Kingdom Hearts, but FFVIII as well. She realized it was pretty dangerous to have a background like that while they were still around, but she had previously whored Cloud Strife's almost identical background for awhile and needed a change.

Not only that, but she needed to do something to keep her mind from wandering. She reached for the phone to call Sharon, but then looked at the time and realized that she was probably in the middle of her Video Production class and wouldn't be out for another hour or so. Unless she skipped, too. Making up her mind, she picked up the cordless phone and stuffed it into the large front pocket of her favorite orange hoodie, then scooted over to the sink and rummaged around beneath it, pulling out a couple of pots and pans. Gina was going to cook her specialty today, which was fried polish sausage and creamy grits. She hadn't had a chance to cook it yet, since the freshman rooms didn't have stoves in them, and if anyone wanted to cook, they had to go out to the kitchen in the main lobby. Not to mention the pots and pans weren't even hers to begin with, but Gina felt she had as much right to use them as Tiffany did.

Moments later, Gina was plopping down all of the utensils in the kitchen area, and her mind drew a blank. _Crap... how do I cook grits again?_ It was amazing how the little things she did at home were like second nature, but if she was pulled out of there and slammed into another environment, she didn't know what to do. She started by absentmindedly filling up the measuring cup with water from the tap, then the rest of her body took over from there. Soon, she was busy stirring the steaming pot of grits, while keeping an eye on the sizzling sausage in the pan beside it.

"God, now I remember why I don't bother with cooking and just take my lazy ass to Kliener all the time." Gina turned the sausage carefully and kept glancing up to the smoke detector on the wall above her head. She didn't want to be that one student that sets off the alarm and causes the whole building to evacuate, and the GVSU police would be scolding her in front of the whole damn place. Well, that just meant that she couldn't get the polish sausage as burnt as she usually liked it.

After making sure everything was ready, she spooned out her small helping of grits on a plate and plopped a sausage right in the middle of it, then made her way over to the couch in front of the big screen TV and started absentmindedly flipping through the channels before stopping at MTV. Gina didn't watch TV that much, since most of the time she was using it to play video games. Not to mention she didn't really know what kind of shows were on at that time in the afternoon, since she really was supposed to be in class. And studying. And doing homework.

Gina shrugged at herself and took a bite out of the polish sausage. She almost ALWAYS failed finals anyway, so what was the use of even fooling herself into thinking she was actually going to have a chance in hell of passing? Of course, it wouldn't have hurt any to at least go and make an appearance in the classroom to get pity points from the professors when she eventually DID show up for the tests and fail, but in Gina's mind, the most important thing was the current FFVIII situation. She did enough homework and extra credit in all of her classes to at least get a final grade of C if she bombed.

Stirring her grits around in her plate, she let her mind wander again. How was it going to be from then on? Gina started wondering about where they lived, who their parents were (if they even had any), what they planned to major in... basically almost everything about their lives. If they were going to stay in her world, she had a right to know all of this about them, especially if they were to remain friends. _But what about the video game? _Gina stopped with the spoon halfway to her mouth as she reached another road block. She couldn't run around hiding the Final Fantasy series from them, because sooner or later they would find out that she did indeed play the series, and that she knew all of them already from that addiction. It was already a miracle that nobody else had mentioned anything to the group about their "striking resemblance" to certain members of the FFVIII orphanage gang. How in the hell could they take that kind of shock?

Speaking of shock, Gina had the shock of her life when the cordless phone she had forgotten she tucked in her hoodie pocket started ringing. Shakily putting down her plate and fishing the phone out, she pressed the talk button and placed it to her ear. "Uh, hello?"

"Hey Gina, what's up! I was hoping you were in... don't you usually have class around this time?" Zell's loud voice responded over the earpiece.

"Uh... yeah, I do... but I skipped. I've kinda had other things on my mind, and class isn't one of them." Gina replied sheepishly.

"I hear ya. Well, what are ya doing now?"

"Just chilling out in the lobby, watching TV and..."

"REALLY? Okay, I'll be right down!"

Gina stared at the phone and sighed while hanging it up. Normally, she would be ecstatic to have Zell hang out with her, but right now she was trying to find a way to figure out his existence. Picking her plate back up and eating more of her grits, she decided that maybe it was just best to leave it alone for now, until something came up. _That's how Sharon deals with things, anyway. I should take some lessons from her and stop panicking all the time..._

Zell jumped over the back of the couch and turned so that he was hanging monkey bar style towards the front, giving Gina another startle. "Not playing video games while the TV is free? Wow, that's a surprise!" His eyes wandered to the plate in her lap. "... what is that?"

"It's my specialty, grits and polish sausage!" Gina cheesed, then realized Zell still had a blank look on his face and cleared her throat. She had to remember that some people haven't ever had grits before, and for someone like Zell, he probably didn't know what either were. "Basically, it's this white gritty kind of stuff that's already seasoned with butter and pepper, and I stick a hot dog like sausage in the middle after I fry it. Doesn't look very appetizing for those who haven't eaten it, but I think it's great. I make it at home all the time."

Zell blinked. "Well... if you say so... can I have some?"

Gina burst out laughing. "If you can brave it. The grits are still warm and there's one polish sausage left, so go ahead and help yourself." She watched as Zell whipped up and rushed to the counter to fix himself a plate. _Dear lord, you could tell him anything and he'd probably eat it, especially if you mention a hot dog. _She waited until he had come back with what was evidently the rest of the grits and the sausage and was steadily devouring it before asking a question.

"Zell... uh..." Gina drew a blank. _Shit. Not now!_

The tattooed blonde looked up. "Yeah? This is really good, by the way. I never had any of this stuff back where I come from."

Gina smiled weakly and tried to put the question back into words. "Umm... what... what classes are you planning to take next semester?" _Lame question, Regina._

"Next semester?" he blinked.

"Yeah. Winter break is coming up really soon, along with finals, so classes for the winter/spring semester are gonna fill up really quickly if you haven't scheduled them yet."

Zell's eyes lit up in recognition, then died down rather quickly. He even stopped eating. Gina noticed this and furrowed her brow. "Zell... what's wrong? If you're worrying about whether you'll get into the classes you want, you can get a closed class permit and squeeze your way in..."

He shook his head. "No, it's not that..." He looked over at her. "I guess I forgot to tell you that we won't be back after this semester ends."

Gina froze, and the food she just ate felt like a large brick in the pit of her stomach. _They weren't coming back? Why were they leaving? Why couldn't they stay?_ She almost felt the questions swimming around frantically in her head. At the same time that she was certain that it was impossible to continue living normally with them in her life, she didn't want them to leave, either.

Trying hard to keep her composure, she nodded. "Okay... well, lots of students don't return after a semester so... I guess that's not all that surprising. Where are you going to go after this, though?"

Zell paused and looked away. "Well, umm... we have to..."

"... transfer back to our old school." A voice finished behind them. Gina looked up and around to see Squall standing behind the couch, his head still bandaged from the injury he received from the match last weekend.

"Oh... well... yeah, should've figured as much, huh?" Gina laughed a bit to cover up her surprise. "Well, I hope you guys enjoyed GVSU for the short time you guys were here..." she almost mentioned that she could always e-mail or call them once they left, but something stopped her. _If they have to go back to Garden, then there's no way I could keep in touch with them, now could I? Oh, what the hell am I thinking!_

While she was lost in her thoughts, Squall addressed Zell. "I need your help with something back at the dorm." He walked off towards the hallway then, leaving Zell to realize that there was still food left on his plate, and he shoveled it all in his mouth at record speed. "Sorry bout that." He said with a smile after swallowing. "I would've told you earlier, but I guess it just slipped my mind... but hey, don't worry about it much, okay? We still have a little time left before the break starts."

Gina nodded, and plastered another smile on her face. "Yeah. I know. Well, you'd better see what Squall wants. I'll take care of the trash and stuff." She watched as Zell flashed her another grin, then jumped over the back of the couch and rushed off towards his room. Then she switched her gaze to the leftover plate on the seat next to her. "They're really leaving..." Gina swallowed the lump that threatened in her throat, and stood to clean up the kitchen area. She wondered if Sharon was back from her class yet, and if she was, then it was time for a much-needed 5-hour conversation at Kliener, even if Gina wasn't hungry in the least.

* * *

Zell pushed open the door to the room he shared with Squall, and was almost immediately greeted by the icy stare his roommate was giving to him.

"Shit... NOW what did I do?" Zell rolled his eyes and walked past him, sitting down on his messy bed.

"Why did you have to tell her we were leaving?" Squall replied, not moving from his place in the middle of the room. "That was risky."

"Yeah, yeah, I know it was... but I just don't think it's fair that we just up and leave without even saying anything."

The brunette whipped around sharply. "Zell, if you haven't forgotten, this isn't a vacation. We're here on a mission, and it's about time we reported back to Cid and let him know what's going on."

"... I didn't forget, but..."

"NO BUTS, ZELL! You can't let anyone know who we are, or where we come from! If I hadn't come in at that moment, then you probably would've blabbed everything off like you usually do."

Zell shot to his feet. "Hyne, could you fuckin' get OFF of yourself and this whole damn mission for once in your life? That's all it ever is with you, is 'by the book' this, 'mission' that. I may be a SeeD, but I still understand that we are dealing with PEOPLE who have feelings and just MIGHT give two shits about us!" With that, the now agitated martial artist brushed back past Squall and opened the dorm door and stormed out.

Squall listened to the sound of the door clicking back into place, and figured that Zell was out doing a strenuous jog around the campus, and most likely wouldn't be back for awhile until he cooled down. He sat down in a chair and stared blankly out of the window. He figured this would happen, especially in Zell's case. Of course, he didn't want to leave as much as Zell wanted to. But if that's what had to be done to complete the mission, then that's what he was going to do. _I have feelings too... but sometimes it's easier to ignore them._


	17. Chapter 17

"THEY'RE WHAT?" Sharon exclaimed, dropping what was left of her sub sandwich back onto the tray.

Gina nodded solemnly, still nursing the same Cherry Pepsi from a couple of hours ago. "Zell said so this afternoon."

"They can't fucking... LEAVE!" Sharon sputtered. "What the HELL?" She didn't even know what she was saying. All she knew was that Gina was deeply saddened by this news, and for that, it couldn't be allowed to happen.

"They said they were just transferring..."

Sharon gave her a pointed look. "Yeah, sure. Transferring back to Balamb GARDEN! Why do you think they didn't tell you exactly WHERE? Dude... where are they? It's now or never. We have to give them the 3rd degree before they leave."

Gina did a face fault. "Say WHAT? Sharii, we can't just up and ask them all of these questions! They'll wonder what came over us!"

Sharon munched on a Frito. "Yeah well... they already know I'm crazy. So I'll just go and ask Squall. No wait, Zell. He's more talkative. I would say Irvine too, but I'd rather kill him before I voluntarily ask him to do ANYTHING besides leave me the hell alone..."

Gina sighed and looked around. She half wanted someone from the group to walk in like they usually did, but if they did, Sharon might actually go through with pummeling them with questions that they'd have to tell them how in the hell they knew.

Sharon trailed off. "I see your point. I know we can't just ask them... we already know, sort of. It's just... man. Something's telling me that if we don't do SOMETHING, then this mystery might as well be filed under unsolved. Do you really want to keep yourself awake night after night wondering just how in the hell all of this happened?"

"I won't do that!" Gina retorted, then looked down as Sharon gave her a look. "Okay... maybe I will... but still... we don't even have a planned course of action or ANYTHING. After all, they could just be pulling our legs."

"If they are, I'll kill them all. But I seriously doubt it. They look like straight replicas of their Squaresoft counterparts, carry the same behavioral traits, the same rivalries, and even wear the same damn clothes! I've never known a cosplayer to go that far into BECOMING the character they've spent all their money on making a costume for, let alone a group of them willing to get together and thoroughly plan all of this out."

Gina hated it when stuff didn't add up. The few things that did make sense ever since they showed up, just contributed to the disbelief and insanity that had enveloped them all. "I'm beginning to wish that we never did see them that day. Either that, or I wish that we never did play Final Fantasy and was able to look at them as ordinary students, rather then trying to shove fictional characters in that category and expecting it to actually work with no hitches."

Sharon gazed at her best friend. _Damn, she's really torn up about this. _She didn't blame her in the least, though. She didn't dwell on things as much as Gina did, but she certainly should learn how to start fully thinking out some of the things she did because it would save her a lot of trouble later on. But that was the strength of the both of them combined; they leveled out each other. Gina thought everything out without bumbling through things irrationally, Sharon was headstrong and took action when Gina couldn't. But now, they didn't have a plan, so they couldn't act... and it was frustrating them both, knowing that they didn't have much time left.

Finishing off the rest of her ham and turkey sub sandwich, Sharon wiped her mouth on a nearby napkin and gathered her things. "Alright. Since we're both at a loss, there's nothing we can do for now but just forget about it."

Gina glanced up sharply. "But we don't have time..."

"You're right, we don't have time to stumble around in the dark. 'A watched pot never boils', the saying goes, right? Maybe if we give ourselves time to unwind, relax, and focus ourselves on other things, then the solution will fly itself into our lap no problem. Until then... let's save our brain cells for something more vital, which would be finals next week."

Groaning, Gina replaced the cap on her Pepsi. "Man, whatever. I hate those damn tests."

"Girl, you aren't the only one." Sharon stood and waited for Gina to do so also, and she gave her a reassuring hug and a smile. "We'll be fine... in both aspects."

A little later on, after giving a final wave to her best friend at the fork in the roads to each of their dorm buildings, Sharon went up the stairs of Pew in her typical fashion, taking two at a time in long bounds. She put the key in the lock and turned it to realize that it was already unlocked, meaning Anne just got back in.

Anne greeted Sharon with a smile when she came in, busily making a bowl of ramen in the microwave. "Hello. Did you see the pretty northern lights in the sky tonight?"

Sharon stopped. "The what? I thought those only appeared in places like Alaska or whatever... or maybe I'm just stupid."

"No, no. I must admit, they are peculiar, but my friends and I were out taking a late stroll and caught them in the sky, around the Japanese gardens." She stopped the beeping microwave and opened the door, releasing the scent of chicken ramen into the room. "Just wanted to let you know, in case they aren't around for long."

_Northern Lights? The only ones I saw were in photos... I don't feel like going back out in that cold, but I know if I just sit around here I'd think about stuff I don't need to be dwelling on._ Sharon pulled the bag of leftover Fritos out of her Lisa Frank jacket pockets and grabbed her CD Walkman. "So, they're somewhere on the other side of campus, you said?" Seeing a confirming nod, Sharon thanked her roommate and went back out.

She walked at her regular fast pace across the barren campus, the 5th chapter of Happy2bHardcore blaring away in her ears to distract her from the occasional cold windy blasts of air that whipped through. While walking, Sharon realized that she was the only crazy college student out at that time of night in the cold, no less. _God, Mom would be having a fit if she knew what I was doing._ Sharon's Mom was always lecturing both her and Gina about walking around campus with headphones on, not being totally alert to your surroundings, and making sure that they were always around civilization when they did walk to and from class. Of course, seeing as though some of their classes let out as late at 8pm, being around lots of people wasn't always possible. Both she and Gina took for granted that it wasn't downtown Detroit they were walking around in, and except for the college itself, the nearest town was 10 miles away, leaving nothing to threaten the students but rows and rows of cornfields, and occasionally that one alien that was planning out a crop circle.

_And they wonder why us college kids are bored as hell. Ain't nothing to do except take the same bus every Saturday and go to the same damn mall._ Sharon gradually got used to the 'country' life, but she was still glad that she had a bustling city to go home to after the school year ended. She crossed the long bridge that connected one side of the campus to the other, spanning across a rather large 40 ft gorge. When she first got to GVSU, she had been too petrified of the thin bridge, and when she had to walk across it, she did so very fast and refused to look over the railings on either side to see how far she was up above the ground. Now, it didn't bug her anymore. It was very dark, of course, so she couldn't see the bottom, but she knew that there were various rocks and objects down in the little creek, spelling out the name of whatever fraternity that braved the steep slope down into the gorge to make themselves known.

Emerging on the other side, Sharon turned the collar up on her jacket to keep the wind off of her neck and started looking around. Turned out, she didn't need to look that far because it was right in the large clearing of the Arboretum, casting a faint light show over the thousands of woods that surrounded the edge of the campus. She let her jaw go slack as she took in the pretty colors tracing the sky, also thinking what irony it was to have the track on her CD player be "Blue Moon". _These are some gorgeous lights... puts lava lamps to shame, I swear. But I wonder why they're just in this area of the campus? You can't see them unless you walk all the way over here. _Letting her eyes leave the sight in the sky, she took in the rather eerily quiet field that was frozen over with blankets of snow.

Then, she saw it.

A faint glimmer of the same kind of lights she observed seemed to come from the far off wooden archway in the back of the arboretum. _The hell? _Looking back up at the sky, Sharon saw that the lights were kind of like a rainbow, and they seemed to point at the spot she had just noticed moments ago. Her heart skipping a beat in excitement, she found herself walking across the snow covered grass to the archway, half hoping that a yeti wouldn't come bowling out of the woods and eat her when she got there.

She really didn't know what she was expecting when she got there, but it was something to do. Upon nearing her destination, her steps slowed down and she tried squinting through the groves of bare vines to get a better look at whatever it was.

Unfortunately, Sharon didn't get to see further than that, because a strong arm circled her waist, and before she could start screaming her ass off, a hand clamped over her mouth.

_Oh... my... SHIT! I'm gonna die..._ She felt panic overtake her and render her useless as she let whomever the mystery abductor was drag her back across the arboretum. _WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING, SHARON! FIGHT BACK, YOU HO! _Snapping out of whatever paralysis she was previously in, she started kicking and elbowing frantically, hoping to hit some sort of weak spot to make them release her. Upon coming back to the entry of the field, she felt her attacker drop her on the ground, her headphones clattering on the half-iced over sidewalk. She fixed her glasses back on her face and looked up, getting a clear look of who she was definitely going to report to security once she finished beating them down.

"Are you going to hurt me while sitting down on the ground?" A pair of emerald eyes stared down at her condescendingly.

Sharon blinked, and tried to will her heart to beat at a slower rate than it already was. She certainly wasn't expecting Seifer of all people to be the culprit, but now that she knew, it didn't make her feel any better, especially the way he was looking at her. She didn't know whether to put him under the category of troubled or just plain unstable, and the fact that she was already visibly rattled by the experience didn't help any.

_Don't let him get the better of you._ She steeled her nerves and stood up, taking note of the fact that he wasn't wearing a bandage over the thin scar the sword left across his face. "What in the FUCKING HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU? You don't go dragging off people like that!"

"What are you doing out this late at night?"

"Don't fucking answer my question with one. I came to look at the goddamn northern lights, if you must know. Is that a crime?"

"I'll be the one to decide that." Seifer smirked. "If you don't want to get written up, then I suggest you take your colorful little jacket back to your dorm and forget what you saw."

Sharon rose an eyebrow. "Oh, really? The hell I am. Just what the fuck are you trying to hide?"

"Nothing you need to worry about. So go on, leave."

"I will NOT be ordered around like you OWN me, mister. I'm not scared by idle threats of suspension, and if you don't tell me what the fuck is going on, then I'll be back tomorrow, the next day, and the day after that until I find out for MYSELF what's over there." She folded her arms. "The choice is yours."

Seifer stared back at the girl in front of him. He couldn't really blame her for reacting the way she did; he would've done the same thing if anyone dared tell him he couldn't do what he wanted. But she drove a hard bargain, considering what was at stake.

"You really want to know what's over there?"

Sharon rolled her eyes. _He might be kinda hot for a bully, but this is just getting ridiculous._ "Gee no, I don't, I just yelled my ass off for nothing. OF COURSE I DO!"

He turned back towards the arboretum. "Those lights point to a portal which leads to a place which you've probably never heard of, called Balamb Garden. Puberty Boy, Chicken-wuss and I come from there, and that cowboy who always seems to follow you around comes from a Garden similar to ours. We're here because we're on a particular mission to survey the area for activity dangerous to you civilians. That's about as much info as you're going to get from me, so if you don't believe it, then that's on you."

Sharon could barely make her brain register what he just said rather easily. _Say what?_ _Gina and I figured this was the case, or something like that... but actually having it confirmed..._ "... why did you just tell me that?"

Seifer snorted. "You asked, didn't you?"

He got her there. "Well, yeah... but if this mission is so important, then you shouldn't be telling 'civilians' like me about it."

"True, but it's not like it matters that much anymore." He shrugged carelessly. "Nothing's going on over here, so we'll be leaving soon. I don't understand how you people can stand to live in a place where it's so..."

"...boring?" Sharon finished for him. "Yeah, tell me about it. Believe me, we have our own problems from time to time, but nothing to the caliber of..." she stopped herself before she finished saying "of what you're used to."

He eyeballed her. "Of what?"

"Huh? Oh... I lost that thought, time to get another one." Sharon waved it off. "But I do kinda wish that SOMETHING exciting came up around here. These northern lights are probably the most that's gonna happen for quite awhile."

There was a long pause then, both of them staring out at the lights in the sky. "Well, if you think you can handle it, why don't you pay us a visit after you're done with your finals?" Seifer finally said.

Sharon coughed. "Excuse me? That's... wouldn't Squall and the others have a fit if I just came prancing into your world?"

"Of course they would. But that's part of the excitement, which is what you just said you wanted, right? Just don't tell them that you know about this place, and they won't have a reason to put up their guard or stop you." Seifer looked back at her, his eyes flashing. "Of course..."

"... what?"

"You might just get more than what you bargained for."

Sharon stared him down as best she could. This was a troublemaker at his best, she knew it. He was hyping her up and then trying to psyche her out in one sitting. _Nice._ "Well." She tried to look nonchalant as she slipped her headphones back over her ears. "If you see me skipping around Balamb Garden anytime soon, then you'll know my answer." With that, she turned and walked back towards the bridge to the other side of campus, her Walkman blaring the hyper beats of Chapter 5.

Seifer gave another smirk at her retreating figure. If she did show up, then he'd get in a lot of trouble. _Oh, well. Same shit, different day._ But he figured it would all be worth it to rattle Squall's nerves a bit, and see the realization that she was steadily writing a check that her ass probably couldn't cash.

* * *

**Angel Of Apocolypse:** Selphie will be in it soon, when the fanfiction gets more interesting. It's coming closer to that point in time though, where everyone from FFVIII joins in and I'll have a lot on my plate to balance, hehe. Oh, and I posted a review to your Shooting Stars fanfic; keep up the good work! And... I've never had Fanta before. I wonder if that means I was raised a sheltered little girl...

**QueenAdreena:** Glad you liked the fight scene! I had been planning that chapter since the time I started writing the fiction, so I guess you could say that everything else I wrote in between critical storyline points were ad-libbed and served more as for my own entertainment than for story progression; which is the reason why this fanfiction is way longer than any fiction like this should EVER get, lol.  
About the grits; don't worry about not knowing what they are. Many people don't know any more than you do. If you know what Cream of Wheat is, then that's the basic concept of what grits are. Only grits are made out of fine white corn meal, and you add boiling water to it to make a smooth, creamy substance that MUST be seasoned with salt & pepper and butter. If you don't, then it tastes like nothing with a mushy, gritty texture. And you have to eat them when it's hot or else they'll congeal into chunks of corn meal... which isn't appetizing at all. Grits don't really fill you up any, so ordinarily they're used as a breakfast side dish to bacon and eggs or something. Stereotypically, black people are most popular for making and enjoying grits (they put it under the "Ethnic Foods" aisle in many supermarkets; it cracks me up so bad).

**Aniis:** Oh, don't worry; this fiction isn't going to end anytime soon. It's just brushing the iceburg of what it evolves into when I figured I should be doing something a little bit more constructive with this creative monster. I figure half of the people reading will start posting reviews that are more like pleads that go "Okay... PLEASE stop writing! I'll do anything... JUST MAKE IT END!" hehe.


	18. Chapter 18

**A/N:** "Oh my GOD, did the storyline just pick its sorry ass off of the ground and get a smidge more interesting?" Yes, it did. Hopefully. Before I got carried away making loads more crazy scenarios that go nowhere for plotline instances, I decided to move it along to the meat of the fanfiction. Yay for me.

* * *

Gina came in her dorm room and put up her now empty book bag near her bed. She was now finished with those horrible finals, and had almost a full week of rest and relaxation before her parents came to pick her up from campus. She even had a pocket full of cash after selling back most of her schoolbooks to splurge on whatever she wanted at the C-store. Even though the worst was finally over and she was free to concentrate on what to pile her Christmas List with, her heart seemed as empty as her backpack was.

They had gone. Ever since the talk with Zell, she didn't really see much of them, mostly because she finally cracked down and actually did some studying for once during the whole semester. In between rushing around, trying to get the dorm halfway presentable so she and Tiffany didn't have to spend as much time getting stuff straightened up for Winter Break, and her scheduling for the upcoming semester, Gina didn't notice until it was too late that she had missed her chance to say good-bye. Now she felt that not only did she have to stay awake at night thinking about how in the world all of them ever existed, she also was prepared to be troubled by the realization that she never did get to see them off.

It was as if someone in her family had died before she got the chance to tell them how much they did mean to her. Of course, just because they were leaving didn't mean that she was going to rush Squall and Zell and proclaim how much she admired them, but still... it was tough. Sharon didn't seem to be as affected, however. If anything, the hyper girl was more concerned for her best friend's emotional status. The only thing she mentioned when Gina told her that they had left, was her relief that she could continue living her college life in peace without Irvine running around trying to make her life hell.

Hopping up on her slightly elevated bed, Gina kicked off her Sketchers and leaned back, feeling her head hit the soft pillowcase. From there, she continued to stare at the ceiling, and the many miniature glow in the dark stars that seemed to take her hours to stick up there. It wasn't often that Gina did something like that, but she didn't feel like doing anything else. The whole situation made her feel so blah; at least when they were still around, her thoughts were driven into a frenzy and her days were without lack of excitement. Now... she didn't know what to do with herself. GVSU was suddenly a very, VERY boring place without FFVIII people running around hyping things up. Gina closed her eyes, and before she knew it, had dozed off in a slumber that was dreamless.

* * *

"Gina... GINA... REGINA!" Gina snapped her eyes open, and almost immediately closed them because she was facing the bright overhead light and it was making her eyes burn. Wondering who the hell was calling her name so loudly, she adjusted long enough to realize that it was her loudmouthed roommate, Tiffany.

"Whhhattt..." Gina replied crossly.

"Well, fine. If you're going to be bitchy like that, then I'll just tell Sharon that you don't want to be her friend anymore and that I'm gonna take over being HER best friend." Tiffany haughtily said, waving the cordless in front of Gina's face.

That woke her up. Snatching the phone out of Tiffany's hand before she did anything stupid, she scanned the room and caught glance of the time. 8:45pm? She'd slept damn near 5 hours, and not only that, she missed dinner with Sharon! Placing the phone to her ear, she quickly formulated an apology. "Hi, Sharii-chan. I'm so sorry that we didn't go out to eat today, I got back from my math final and I didn't mean to fall asleep, but it just kinda happened and..." Gina babbled, half-sleep.

"Oh, girl, calm yo ass down!" Sharon usual hyper voice sounded over the receiver. "I'm not even worried about that. I just wanted to tell you something... oh wait, I'm so stupid. How are you feeling? Still down?"

Gina cracked a smile, the first one she probably managed all day. "A little, but... that's alright. I'll be fine. But you got me curious, now. Whatcha wanna tell me?"

An excited giggle was heard, and Gina knew that whatever it was, got Sharon so hyped up that she was going to probably burst. "Dude, just get your ass over to my dorm. You'll see."

Gina said okay and hung up the phone shortly afterwards, still very curious, but at the same time feeling a bit of the contagious excitement her friend was giving off. _Man, Sharii always has cool surprises to help cheer me up when I'm down! _She hopped off of her bed and fished around for her Sketchers, grabbed her coat off of a nearby hook, and said "Tiff, I'm gonna go over to Sharii's dorm for a little bit." before leaving out. It was bitterly cold, as usual, but soon she reached her destination, and Sharon pulled her into her dorm room before she even had a chance to knock.

"Just one sec. Almost finished." Sharon's eyes sparkled, and she turned back to furiously over-stuffing a small backpack-like purse full of CDs. Gina blinked.

"Uh... Sharii-chan... why are you-"

"ALRIGHT! That's all that's gonna fit, but it'll have to do." she cut her off, and slung it over a shoulder while turning back around to face Gina. "We're ready to go!"

"... go? Where?"

"To see the Northern Lights!" Sharon proclaimed proudly. "They're in that park near Ausable Hall. C'mon, let's go!" She grabbed Gina's wrist and pulled her out of the dorm and down the stairs of Pew Living Center.

Gina did not know what the hell was going on. _Northern Lights?_ She didn't hear of this in the campus events. What kind of band would hold a concert over in that area, when it was this cold out, and that dark? _But wait a minute... if we were going to see a band, then why would Sharii be bringing nearly half her CD collection with her?_ She let herself be practically dragged at high speed across campus as she tried to figure this out.

Sharon stopped abruptly after what seemed like an eternity of dragging, almost causing Gina to crash right into her. "WE'RE HERE!" Sharon shouted to the empty expanses of GVSU's campus.

The shorter, less excited girl gave Sharon a look, then followed her gaze to the sky up above the edge of the trees. _Oh... she meant REAL northern lights... damn... and here I am thinking she meant something else... _"Wow... these really are pretty, Sharii-chan. But... um... is this..." Gina let her voice trail off, not wanting to say anything that could possibly offend if this was all Sharon had planned to show her. She wasn't an outdoor person at all, and the cold had started nipping at her hands and feet.

"I'm getting to that. This is gonna blow your fuckin' mind!" The colorful girl once more grabbed hold of her best friend's wrist and pulled her into the arboretum, heading for a desolate place way at the edges of the park that Gina didn't even touch when it was bright daylight. Automatically, her mind started filling with images of bears or whatever kind of wildlife West Michigan housed jumping out of the deep woods and ripping them limb from limb. But still, Sharon seemed to know what was going on, and if she'd been there before, then there was no other choice but to just trust the crazy girl.

"Ta-da!" Sharon announced in the same excited timbre. "Isn't this the most whacked out 1337 thing you've ever laid eyes on?"

Gina found herself staring at what seemed like Superman ice cream all swirled together, suspended in space right behind one of the intricate, vine covered wooden archways the arboretum had to offer. She rubbed her eyes and looked again, and started wondering if she bumped her head somewhere along the way, or heat mirages could suddenly be possible in extremely cold weather.

"... what... what in the..." Gina stammered.

"Have you ever watched Sliders?" Sharon hastily breathed. "You know, the show that used to come on the Sci-Fi channel all the time?" When she received a blank (but mostly just shocked) look on Gina's face, she continued. "Okay, basically, it's this show about this really smart... and cute, I might add... guy who was a science nut, and spent days upon days thinking up ways of inter-dimensional transportation to other worlds. In theory, there were always millions and millions of worlds that operated differently and the way people thought and what they did were sometimes off the wall, but damn near identical down to the point where there were copies of himself in every world. But, his dream came true, and one of his other world counterparts came into his world to tell him that he was true, and handed him this remote like device to jump to different worlds. And once he got sucked into the portal... that's how the series went."

Gina blinked. "So... umm... the whole point of the show was him 'sliding' to different worlds? How did he know where he was going next? I watched Quantum Leap before, and I knew at least THAT guy knew where he was going."

She paused to think. "Well... he didn't. Basically, I don't ever think he got back to his right world after that."

Gina stared at the swirl of colors in front of her, and her brain clicked. "... so you're saying that this thing is what the sliders..." Her eyes widened. "What the HELL? There's NO way I'm jumping in there if I'm not going to be able to come back, and if you're thinking that you were going to do that, then I'm sorry, I'm going to be forced to hit you very hard in the head."

Sharon rolled her eyes. "You didn't let me FINISH! It's not EXACTLY like the TV program, but it's sort of the same kinda concept. Through there, it's another world... but it's not exactly like ours and we aren't going to find duplicates of ourselves over on the other side. And don't worry, this portal will always lead back to our normal world, so no 'sliding' for years upon years trying to find our way back."

"... so... let me get this straight." Gina crossed her arms and looked at Sharon, who was still excited like they were actually going to be TOUCHING that thing. "You think that this mass of... gaseous Superman ice cream is a portal that leads to another world, even though you've never been there, and you don't know what's over there, and yet you still expect me to go 'oh, okay Sharii, let's go' and frolic into whatever the hell it is, humming gleefully?"

"Yeah, that's the idea."

Gina twitched. "GIRL, ARE YOU NUTS! First off, I think I'M going crazy just by even flirting with the thought that all of what you just said made logical SENSE. Standing here out in this retardedly frigid cold, I vow from this day forward never to watch the Sci-Fi channel ever again, and I highly recommend you do the same. It's just a mirage from the northern lights, probably formed by whatever moisture is still left in the air around this pond filled area. Now, I appreciate that you tried to get me distracted from the fact that Squall and the others are gone forever with this crazy story you pulled out of your ass at the last minute, but right now I'm cold, hungry, and I think I feel a migraine coming on. All of that loosely translates into the fact that I'm ready to go back to my warm building of Swanson, and bury myself under the layers of cushiony comforter in hopes that I don't remember any of this by tomorrow morning." She took a deep breath after her speech.

Sharon looked back at Gina, her face a mixture of mild shock and hurt at the lecture she just received as if she were a small child. Okay, so the whole story was far-fetched, and Gina didn't eat anything since lunch. But still... after all that had unfolded over the many weeks, she thought that nothing would faze her then. Somewhere in all of her excitement of showing Gina this place, she let it slip her mind that Gina was the kind of person to let herself get overwhelmed by non-normal things instead of just accepting it as fact after awhile, like she did. _Shit, Sharon, you suck right about now, you dumbass._

"... Sharii-chan, I'm so sorry!" Gina blurted, not being able to take the silence anymore. "I didn't mean to sound so harsh, I was just trying to say that you shouldn't... we shouldn't... oh, crap, I don't know..." she bit her bottom lip, trying to prevent the quiver that she felt was going to come on.

Sharon smiled and waved it off. "Don't worry about it. It's my fault, really, and every word you said isn't something that you should regret, but feel glad that you let out. It's a way of showing that you don't hold stuff in anymore, and I'm happy, even if the recipient of that has to be me."

Gina sighed in relief. The last thing she wanted was for her best friend to take it the wrong way, but she should always know that Sharon wouldn't doubt her at all.

"Of course, that just means I'll have to prove it to you." Sharon ignored Gina's incredulous gaze as she pulled a pen out of a pocket, and clicked it twice to make it glow purple. It was Sharon's favorite pen, because it combined two of her favorite things into something that she could actually claim to be useful. "Now you see it?" She flicked her wrist and tossed the pen at the misty swirl of colors. "Now you don't."

_... where the heck did the pen go? WHERE DID IT GO?_ Gina almost had an aneurysm trying to make herself comprehend that instead of falling on the snow covered ground, it simply ceased to exist once touching the now confirmed portal. She kept a wide birth, but walked 360 degrees around the colors, her eyes scanning the ground the whole time.

Sharon waited for Gina to walk back to where she was before talking. "No, it's not a magic trick. It's for real, no matter how whacked out it seems."

"But.. how... how... it... how.."

"I bumped into Seifer at this place, the night you told me that Zell said they were leaving. I didn't come here expecting something like this, but I'd heard about the lights in the sky from Anne. I think he tried to scare me off, but when I proved a tougher match then he figured, he let loose information that solved all of our questions; how the hell Final Fantasy characters can exist in our world." She paused. "He also extended the invitation to come visit anytime."

Gina felt the wheels in her head grind painfully slow at the workload it was suddenly given. _If... I go through there... I would be in... I could see Zell and Squall... and the rest of the crew... if I went..._

"Just... don't think about it. If you do, you'll chicken out of an opportunity that probably will never present itself again, and that's something that even I would admit to staying up late at night kicking myself in the ass for." Sharon reached out and grabbed her hand. "Just remember; it's not permanent. We can go, see the looks on their faces when they realize that we followed them back to Garden, crash a few SeeD parties, and be back before we knew it. Nothing to lose."

Her mind was shot. It's probably best that it finally was, because if it continued to grind away at the overwhelming impossibilities that were piled in her lap, then she probably would never have come to a decision concerning the choices presented in front of her at that very moment.

"Well. Why didn't you say that in the first place?" Gina held tightly onto Sharon's hand, and together they walked forward and allowed themselves to be swallowed up by the swirling mist.


	19. Chapter 19

**A/N:** I guess I should have incorporated it in this story somewhere before, but Gina is very paranoid of her left ankle. She injured it way back in elementary school, which left the tendons weak and very vulnerable to future injuries.

* * *

Sharon tripped forward off of an imaginary step, and found herself flailing forward and face first onto soft, green grass. _Aww, shit... that wasn't kosher. _Pulling herself up and dusting herself off, she looked to her side and was relieved to see that Gina didn't pwn herself like she just did. The last thing they needed was Gina re-injuring her already delicate ankle and gimping around trying to do what they came there to do.

Gina winced at her friend's fall, and then realized how warm she was suddenly. "Man, it's hot... I guess our winter clothes aren't suitable for over here." She pulled her kitty hat off of her head, and unzipped her coat.

"Tell me about it. For once, I'm glad I only wear my Lisa Frank jacket... never know when the temperature might drastically change!" she cracked, and peered upwards to the sun high in the clear blue sky. "Damn... it's not night over here, either." She looked around. "Uh... now... where exactly are we?"

Gina looked around also. Behind them was the portal, a little less visible in the daytime glares of the sun, and around them seemed to be endless plains of lush grass. In some parts in the distance, she could see groves of trees, but other than that, she was totally turned around and didn't even know where to start walking. "I have no idea... maybe we should turn back now..."

"No! We just got here, man!" Sharon pleaded. "As long as we keep our bearings focused on that portal, we can walk around and maybe we'll see something familiar." She took one more uncertain look around, then finally started walking straight ahead of her.

Gina followed, her paranoia causing her to glance back once every half second to make sure that they didn't get too far from the portal. "Man... what if... what if the portal dropped us off somewhere totally different in this world, and we could go walking into the Centra Ruins or something... oh no... Sharii, I REALLY think we should just turn around and..." She cut herself off when a shadow distracted her.

Sharon stopped walking when Gina's conversation ceased. "I'm listening, I just want to make sure..." Turning around, she realized that there was a sound that she hated more than fingernails scraping against a chalkboard. "Oh, my god... where is it?" Her eyes darted around in a panic.

Gina choked. The shadow that was cast over them belonged to the biggest insect she'd ever seen in her entire life, and emanating a buzzing sound that she didn't even like when it was coming from a tiny annoying house fly. Her eyes widened in shock when she could see almost every detail on the thing, including some huge black eyes and ... was that a fang coming from it's mouth?

"IT'S A BITE BUG! OH SHIT! RUN!" Gina screamed, this time grabbing Sharon's arm and dragging her off, her legs pumping faster than she knew she could ever do. Sharon prayed that she wouldn't trip and fall, because she still heard the ominous buzzing sound close behind them.

They really didn't know how far they ran, they just booked blindly until they were sure that the bug still wasn't chasing them down like a thief at market. Finally feeling Gina's death grip on her arm loosen, Sharon collapsed on her knees on the ground, trying to catch her breath. That was the scariest thing she'd ever seen in her entire existence, and what was even scarier was the fact that there wasn't enough Raid in the world to kill something like that. When that Bite Bug made its appearance, that's when Sharon realized that they were terribly unsuited for being in any kind of Final Fantasy world; they didn't live in a place where they had to carry weapons just to take out the trash because a monster could come out and attack at any moment.

"Okay. This definitely sucks. Seifer probably knew what he was telling me to do when I took that bait... damnit! He ain't slick. He AIN'T slick! I HATE bugs! Time to go ba... G-fuu?" Sharon stopped ranting away and realized that Gina's eyes were trained on something behind her. Afraid that it was another one of those Bite Bugs, she whipped around and saw something that wasn't as nearly as frightening, but just as shocking.

Balamb Garden. Somehow, they ran all the way from wherever they were to end up damn near on its front doorstep. It was unbelievable for both girls to see it, especially up close and personal. Its sleek architecture was astounding, since no building like that existed back in the real world. Some of the things they saw on there defied all sense of gravity and physics, with what looked like thin streamers and thin discs of colorful glass suspended in midair around a high peak at what seemed to be the center of the complex.

"Hot shit. We made it. Came right off of one college campus, to be right at the front of another! WE RAWK!" Sharon jumped up, feeling the excitement come back into her veins.

Gina, however, just had millions of butterflies dancing around in her stomach at that point. She had followed Sharon's advice upon stepping into that portal, about not thinking about anything. But somewhere in the back of her mind, she wasn't truly expecting all of this to even be TRUE, even if it meant mentally denying almost everything she experienced to the bitter end. It wasn't good for Gina's mental state, and certainly wasn't good for her stomach. Indigestion always seemed to happen at the most crucial points in her life.

"Well... what are we waiting for! Let's go!" Sharon plastered a big smile on her face and skipped up the initial steps to the garden. Gina followed in a sort of daze, her eyes scanning over the many water fountains surrounding the walk area, along with the green bushes sprouting beautiful flowers that she knew didn't even exist. They passed the road that they knew lead out of the Parking Lot, and kept walking until they saw the actual entrance gates up ahead. That's when Gina spazzed and pulled on the back of Sharon's colorful jacket.

"Dude! We can't just go waltzing in! Don't you remember... the guy in the office next to the gates!"

Sharon blinked. "So?"

"He's been there since the Garden was first established, if you bothered to stop and talk to him in the game. If I was him, then I'd be willing to bet everything I have to say that he knows every single face that attends Balamb Garden, and wouldn't hesitate to wonder how the hell we think we can just walk in without him realizing."

She had a point, as always. Sharon breathed exasperatingly, looking back at the gates. They were so close, but if they were caught... she didn't even know what would happen if they tried pleading out of it by saying they were really from an alternate world that portrayed this one as a video game, and they followed the characters they knew and recognized out of curiosity. Hell, they were probably better off saying they were mentally insane.

"Okay... so if we can't get in... what do we do? I didn't nearly get my head chewed off by a Bite Bug to get turned away... and hey... where did we say that portal was again?"

Gina froze. She remembered running... but... _oh fuck..._ "I... don't know. I can't remember... oh no... Sharii, I'm scared... what if we can't get back?"

Sharon leaned forward and impulsively hugged her. "No, we're not even gonna allow ourselves to think about that. If anything, we'll just have to stick around until dark where we can see the northern lights pointing back to it. We'll get back, I promise." she pulled back, and took another look back at the gates, where a few students were milling through. "Alright... Plan B..."

"Which would be...?"

"Uh... doesn't that road we saw lead to the actual town of Balamb? Let's go there and see the sights or something... by then, maybe we'll think of something better to do... or we can risk our lives at dusk trying to get back to that portal."

Gina nodded, and they turned around and walked as nonchalantly as they could muster back out in the open, as if they did this kind of thing every day. They followed the blacktop for what seemed like blocks, since they didn't have an access to a vehicle or a bike or anything. The good thing about the walk was that they didn't suffer any more attacks from Bite Bugs or anything else, as long as they didn't venture off the path and onto the grass or in the forests.

Sooner or later, they walked past the car rental and gas station at the entrance to Balamb, and was stepping over the cobblestone streets of the quaint town. Sharon breathed in the smell of sea air, and found it all very calming. She didn't realize how much she was wound up until then. _I can't believe we're actually HERE... _she accomplished the impossible, and was sure to hold it to her pride forever. The downside of it was that neither of them could tell anyone back home what they experienced, unless they really did want to end up in a looney bin for actually believing in an overactive imagination.

Gina tried not to stare at her surroundings, but it all seemed so surreal. She watched a few kids ride by on bicycles, laughing as they pedaled faster. She turned her head and saw the row of doors at lower elevation than the street, knowing that the last one at the small block belonged to Ma Dincht. She felt kind of sad that it wasn't a game anymore, because she couldn't just walk in and out of people's houses without them thinking she was trying to rob them or anything. She wanted to see everything now, like a kid in a candy store. They walked past the bench next to the entrance to the Junk Shop, and Gina almost laughed out loud as she recognized the same dude that was always sitting there who usually told Zell to go pay a visit to home once in awhile. _Just like the game... this is so cool!_

They walked some more, passing the small but gorgeous Balamb Hotel, and watched as numerous sea gulls circled around the shore. Eventually, they came to the end of the small town, the dock that they both recognized to be the place where Squall's first mission to Dollet had started. Together, they sat down nearby, staring out at what seemed like an endless expanse of water, rippling gently with the breeze.

"Man... you know what I just realized?" Sharon giggled. "We got money, but it's worth shit here. Unless there's a US currency to Gil converter office around here."

Gina laughed too, even though the situation was really more serious than to just laugh off. It was either cry or laugh, and Sharon almost always liked to choose the latter. "I know! I guess that rules out souvenirs. And I sure did want that issue of Timber Maniacs, too!" They cracked up some more, idly wondering if they were slowly losing their minds. After they calmed down some, Gina continued. "I wonder where we came in. You know, in comparison to the game."

Sharon shrugged. "I have no idea. Could be disc 1. Or 4. Or maybe everything's not going to go like the game and we could be in for lots of surprises. For simplicity's sake, I hope it adheres as close to the game as possible, so we won't be as surprised if stuff happens to come up."

"Yeah..." Gina replied, then squinted out over the dock. Faint sparkles of... something caught her eye, and she stood up and inched a bit closer to the edge as she dared without wanting to fall over.

"What the hell is it?" Sharon appeared next to her, looking at it also. "It's pink... I hate pink..."

"It's a draw point!" Gina suddenly said. "It's been awhile since I played, but there are two fully visual ones in this town... the one in front of the Junk Shop that should hold Thunder magic... and this one in the water that holds.. uh..."

"Cure magic." Sharon finished. "I remember now. So... okay. I wonder how you get the magic out of it? Do you think if we stared at it long enough it'll happen?"

Gina shrugged. "I don't even know. It's worth a try, though, since we have nothing else better to do." They both stared unblinking at the swirl of pink sparkles in the water, feeling a bit self-conscious all the while. After awhile, Sharon started to yawn. "Okay... this ain't working... and I'm letting myself fall asleep doing this..."

Her best friend continued to stare, however, racking her brain for ways to try to do it. _C'mon, magic... come to me... please... _Just as she was going to give herself another headache, the pink sparkles shot upwards out of the water and flew at Gina, causing her to yelp and bat the air frantically and fall backwards on her butt.

"HOT SHIT! I think you did it!" Sharon jumped in the air, then reached over to help her up. "How'd ya do that?"

"Umm... I don't... know..." Gina felt the same, just a bit startled by what just happened. "That was freaky... but fun."

Sharon laughed. "Man. Now we just need to figure out how to use what you apparently just stocked. Oh well... HEY! Let's go back to Garden and see if we can sneak in with a group of students! This is gonna be so cool..."

Gina looked at the now gray sparkles coming out of the water, then followed Sharon away from the dock, back towards town. _I stocked Cure magic... cool... now, if Sharii or I get hurt, I can heal us... if I knew how... _She paused her pace as Sharon stopped and stared at one of the doors of the houses. "Dude... isn't this Zell's place? I wonder if we can just waltz in and say we're friends of Zell and his Mom will let us stay here... what do you think?"

"Girl, we can't do that! This isn't really Final Fantasy; she'd call the police... or something..."

"We don't know that! We could luck out! It's worth a try."

"I thought we were gonna go back to Garden! You keep changing your mind..."

Sharon grinned sheepishly. "I know, I know... but ... well, I just want to see what will happen, mostly." She reached for the door handle.

"YEAH, MA, I KNOW, I'LL BE CAREFUL!" The door whipped open, sending Sharon stepping backwards in shock. Zell stepped out of the doorway and closed the door, then turned around to almost collide into her.

"Oh, dude, I'm so sorr..." He cut himself off when he realized just who he bumped into outside of his door. "... Sharon?!"

* * *

**Aniis:** Thank you for your kind words! I am not used to being showered with such praise, so forgive me if I don't have much to say in return. But... I can thank you with more updating of my fanfic!

**QueenAdreena:** Don't you dare hold your breath! LOL If there was a portal leading to every game out there... well. I'd hate to jump in the one that led to Silent Hill or Resident Evil or some other horror game. I think I'd piss my pants, have a heart attack and keel over and die. But the concept would be cool!


	20. Chapter 20

**A/N:** Oh shit. I just thought about something. I'm going to be in China for a study abroad program starting May 7th. I can't lug my bigass desktop computer overseas, and after I finish paying the fees and tuition for this trip I will be too broke to get a laptop. Fuck. Uh... I'll have to figure out how the hell I'm going to update this fic while I'm over there.

* * *

"Ahehe... you see... we were in the neighborhood... and uh... WE JUST DECIDED TO DROP BY AND SEE YA!" Sharon ad-libbed, nervously chuckling.

"We?" Zell looked beyond Sharon to see a timid Gina give a cautious wave and half-smile. "Oh, boy..."

Gina and Sharon exchanged glances. The whole idea of coming there WAS to see them and say hi, along with see the sights the world had to offer... but this came up a bit too soon.

"Let me guess... through the portal?" Zell asked, and got nods from both girls. "Man, how did you guys find that thing? It was pretty far hidden back at GVSU... and Seifer was supposed to be in charge of deterring people from its existence..."

Sharon's eyes became shifty. "Uh, yeah... well, about him... he uh... don't blame him for what we did. I bet he gets in enough trouble around Garden, anyway."

Zell blinked. "How do you know about Garden? Seifer leaked THAT much info to you? Geez... the only time he's cooperative is when it deals with causing the rest of us hell."

Gina breathed. "Anyways... I never got a chance to tell you guys goodbye... so... I took the opportunity when it was given... and... don't be mad... we'll leave soon, if you want..."

Zell stood there, not really knowing what to do. Gina looked like she was on the verge of tears for the second time since they arrived. Sharon started to go hug her again, but she stopped and elbowed Zell over to do it. He stepped over awkwardly and gave her a hug, causing Gina to start flushing a slight pink. Sharon grinned in her accomplishment.

"Don't be sad, okay Gina?" Zell said finally, pulling back to look at her. "It's not that I want you guys to go... or that we purposely left without giving you a chance to wish us off... but what I did learn when I was in your world is how different and peaceful it is. You might get hurt if you're not careful, and I don't want anything to happen to you."

Gina nodded and tried to get the burning sensation out of her cheeks before he noticed she was practically on fire. _Sharii's gonna pay for that..._

"Tell me about it. A bigass bug nearly ate us when we got out of the portal. Talk about a rude awakening." Sharon said.

"A Bite Bug? Dude... there are a lot of other things around here that are more dangerous than those... but to someone like you two, it must've been scary." He laughed. "Well..." Zell scratched his head. "I suppose we could go to Garden and check things out... you guys must be starving, and if we get there in time maybe we could get some hot dogs!"

Sharon and Gina breathed a sigh of relief. They got their ticket into Garden, and without much hassle, either. Together, the three of them walked back to the outskirts of Balamb and started back down the path to the Garden.

"So... what exactly were you doing over in our world, anyway?" Gina started.

Zell racked his brain, trying to find the simplest way to break it down to them. "Well... first off, for the exception of Seifer, we're all SeeDs. Basically, we're a group of elite mercenary forces that do all sorts of odd jobs around the world for pay. Anyone willing to pay enough Gil, we go in, take orders, do our job and get out. We all get trained at these places called Gardens, which are basically a lot like college campuses, with a few differences here and there."

Sharon snuck a glance at Gina, who seemed to be hanging on to Zell's every word. _Like she didn't know all of this already..._ But it was better for them to play dumb while they were there, since they couldn't just up and know everything without having been there.

"A little bit after we first became SeeDs, that portal you all jumped through appeared." Zell continued, kicking a pebble across the road. "We didn't know if it was a threat or not, or what made it appear in the first place, so all of us were dispatched to go investigate and report any findings. If it was a threat to Garden, then we were to eliminate it and return. Of course, we didn't find anything, so we came back with no problems."

Gina furrowed her brow. "Wait... if Seifer isn't a SeeD, then why was he on your team?"

"Headmaster Cid's always giving Seifer chances to redeem himself." Zell shook his head. "If I was him, I would just give up on it. But Seifer's been known of causing a bit of trouble around Garden, and the only reason he's not a part of SeeD is because he can't keep things simple for the life of him."

Sharon laughed. "Yeah, I bet us being here is not gonna help him at ALL."

"Tell me about it. If word gets out that you guys came from the other side of the portal, then he'd be the one to get most of the blame... but Squall's not gonna like it much, either. He tends to be stiff when it comes to missions."

Gina gulped. She wanted to see him too, but he probably wasn't going to be as easy-going as Zell was upon learning their existence in their realm. The last thing she wanted was him blowing up and yelling at them.

"Speaking of idiots... is that bitch Irvine here? Cause if he is, then I'm gonna have to kill him just for the hell of it." Sharon seethed.

Zell shook his head and laughed. "Naw, he's not. Better for the both of you, eh? He's a He was dispatched by Galbadia Garden to check out the portal as well. B-Garden and G-Garden are the two top training facilities around here, and rivals as well. Anything Balamb does, Galbadia will try to top us. This time, neither Garden got anything worthwhile to parade around with, but Irvine's probably back at G-Garden giving the same report that we had to give Cid a couple of days ago."

"So... you said you found our world 'peaceful'. I know it must've been weird coming to GVSU and finding all of the bugs there the size of a fingernail compared to here." Gina spoke up, her eyes drifting over to the shore a ways away.

"Yeah. It was nice to be able to walk anywhere and not have to worry about fighting monsters or looking over your shoulder every minute to make sure a soldier isn't out for your head."

"A soldier?" Sharon lifted an eyebrow. "You guys at war or something?"

Zell nodded, his mood dropping a bit. "This land's been at war for as long as I can remember. It's either a sorceress or something else, I swear. Being at your college really did make me appreciate what peace was really like... I guess you could say I'm jealous of what you guys have."

Silence. "Uh... I'm not going to tell you not to feel that way... because I'm sure I would if I was in your place..." Gina said tentatively. "But don't let it get you down much. I'm sure you all will be able to experience peace like ours one day."

He looked up and cracked a smile at Gina. "Thanks..." Then he looked in front of him. "Well, looks like we're finally here. DUDE! I can finally repay the favor that you guys did at your mall and be tour guide Zell!" He broke into an excited jog up the stairs, and Sharon and Gina rushed to catch up. They followed Zell all the way through the front gates, the guy in the office giving them a nod. Gina let out a silent breath. _If it was that easy, I wonder if we could have gotten by without Zell being with us..._

The martial artist led them to the directory right near the front gate. Sharon peered at it with the words, "What, no 'You Are Here' sticker?"

"Nope. A lot of new people wonder why there isn't something like that on here, too. Maybe it's something we can look into doing..." Zell pointed at the colored tags on the screen. "If you go right around this bend, the first thing you're going to get to is the Library... but I don't go in there much, because there's this girl in there that weirds me out..."

Gina half tuned Zell out as he continued to run down the whole Garden tour. She already knew her way around as if she lived there, so what was the point of listening? Instead, she gazed around at her surroundings, cheesing like a fool. _Oh my GOD, this is UNREAL! Escapism like whoa..._ Students walked by in their navy uniforms complete with the elaborate gold trim, chatting idly and going wherever they needed to go. Gina even thought she caught a couple of them playing the popular card game, and immediately wondered if she'd get her chance to try out her skills. She'd been queen at it in the game, and was itching to see if she still was when trying it out first hand. Decorative water fountains splashed everywhere, and Gina remembered that the whole area they were standing on was built above what she thought of as an indoor man-made lake. _I wish our school had the same design as Garden did... everything here just makes GVSU seem so BORING!_

"... and right around that way should be the Infirmary. Dr. Kadowaki is really nice, and she'd do just about anything to make sure everyone here at Garden is in top shape." Zell finished with a grin. "Well, I think that's about it for the primary tour. I'll show you guys most of the areas I just mentioned later... for now, let's get some grub!" Zell walked off then, and Sharon nudged Gina out of her gaping daze to follow him to the Cafeteria.

_Stop smiling... STOP SMILING! _Gina had a hell of a time getting the ends of her lips to stop upturning as they walked the long hallway into the Cafeteria. Her eyes were forever bright and wide like a child's, and Sharon dragged her down to claim a table while Zell took the duty of grabbing them all hot dogs.

"Oh, lovely Quistis... how your eyes enrapture my soul..." A male voice from a nearby table sounded. "Your figure... it haunts my dreams, ravages my mind..."

"Shut UP already! Hyne, you wonder why you fail all of your exams... she's never gonna notice you if you spend all of your time drooling on your desk while she teaches!" His friend snapped, sipping on a cup of juice. "I swear, you're the saddest cadet I've ever hung around in my life..."

Gina and Sharon looked at each other, and cracked up. The Trepies of Balamb Garden rear their heart filled heads. It was always humorous in the game, but hearing it up close and personal was much more amusing.

Zell came back then, setting down a tray filled with lots of hot dogs. "Man, this must be my lucky day! They actually HAVE hot dogs when I ask for them! They always seem to be out every other time... you guys must be my good luck charms or something!" He sat down across from them. "Go ahead and take what you want... whatever's left I'll eat."

Sharon bit into a hot dog after covering it with ketchup. "Hmm... not bad... nowhere near Einstein Bros bagel dogs, though."

"I don't think I've tasted hot dogs that good since being at GVSU." Zell said, shoving half a hot dog into his mouth. "If I knew you guys were coming, then I would have asked for a doggy bag!"

Gina nibbled on her own hot dog, glad to be able to eat something, but at the same time too excited to eat as much as she wanted. All the while they were eating, she tried to keep her eyes on her food to keep from staring at everything around her as she so liked to do.

"Okay. Where are the drinks?" Sharon asked, picking up one of the empty cups on the tray. "God, never knew how spoiled I was on the extra large drinks at school..." Zell pointed her over to the drink dispenser near the edge of the counter, stuffing another hot dog in his mouth. Sharon grinned and shook her head. "No need for words, I can do it." She pushed her chair back and walked over to it, not really knowing half of the drinks listed, but tried some pink colored stuff. _If it tastes like horse piss, then I'll blame Zell..._

"SEIFER. DRINK?" A feminine, but slightly horse voice barked nearby. Sharon's eyes widened. _Oh fuck..._ She turned slowly to see a female in a blue top and an eye patch approaching the dispenser. Her silver hair framed her petite face and stopped just below the chin.

Seifer rounded the corner from the entrance, shaking his head. As much as he was used to hanging around Fujin, he wished that she'd talk like a normal person for once in her life. As he was trying to figure out a way to respond, he looked over her shoulder and spotted someone he was somewhat surprised to see.

Keeping her cool, Sharon smiled and lifted her drink in a one sided toast. "Hello, Mr. Almasy. Happy to see me?"

At that moment, Raijin rounded the corner. "Ya know Fujin, you should learn to walk slower... right, Seifer?" He blinked and noticed that his attention was directed elsewhere. He affixed his brown eyes on the girl with a brightly colored jacket. "You know her?"

Ignoring both of his lackeys, Seifer smirked. "Didn't think you had the balls to do it."

"Oh, but I don't. I have the ovaries, however." Sharon replied with a smile. "Just thought I'd take your open invitation to drop in and say hi, and crashing all of your parties, of course."

Seifer kept her gaze steadily. "Do what you want. Just don't run around here crying when you get hurt. We here at Garden don't tolerate weaklings."

Sharon bit the inside of her lip to keep from retorting an automatic "fuck you". _He's calling me WEAK? Okay, then..._ "If I recall, I didn't get my face cut open by a guy who just reached puberty." She said icily, and Seifer's green eyes darkened a few shades. _Oooh, touched a nerve there, did I?_ In the back of her mind, she was very glad that the Cafeteria didn't allow weapons, because if they did, then her head would probably be lopped off by his gunblade and Gina would have to run around the place trying to pick it up.

Fujin walked up to stand beside Seifer. "RAGE!"

Sharon turned her head to blink at her absently. "Girl, you might want to tone that down a bit. Don't want to make everyone's ears bleed within a 5 mile radius, now do you?"

Gina looked up when she heard Fujin's voice bark angrily. Turning, she nearly died when she saw Sharon in a face off with the Disciplinary Committee. "Oh my god..."

Zell looked around until he saw what got Gina so worried. "Wha... oh, shit, not them... We'd better get over there before something bad happens." He emptied the tray in a nearby trashcan and followed Gina over to where the commotion was.

"Sharii-chan!" Gina shakily said, moving to stand beside her best friend. "What's up?"

"Nothing much. Just having a friendly conversation with Seifer and his friends." Sharon smiled carelessly, then as if to prove her point, she extended her hand to Rajin. "Hi, I don't believe we've met. My name is Sharon."

Raijin grinned and took her hand, shaking it briskly. "Nice to meet ya. I'm Raijin. Don't mind Fujin; she's a little bit hot headed at times... OW!" Fujin kicking him in the shin cut him off.

While everyone was distracted, Gina tugged on her arm. "Sharii, let's go..." she whispered, wanting to get out of there quickly.

"Okay." She turned back to Seifer. "I'm so sorry, but I believe we'll have to continue our conversation some other time." Sharon reached out and grabbed one of Seifer's hands and placed her drink in his grip. "My present to you. Don't worry, I don't have cooties." With that, she blew him a kiss and let herself get dragged off by Gina, who couldn't believe Sharon had the audacity to do what she just did.


	21. Chapter 21

"Sharii-chan... you're crazy." Gina shook her head as Zell opened up the door to his dorm room, and they filed in. Gina immediately noted how Zell kept his room as messy as he did when he was at GVSU. "I don't think you should provoke Seifer anymore..."

"Psht." Sharon waved her hand. "He started it. Besides, as long as I don't do that when he has his gunblade equipped, I'm cool." She plopped down in a chair.

"You know... this reminds me of that thing you had going between you and Irvine." Zell pointed out, which got him a glare. "What? It is!"

"No, it's not. It's actually FUN when it involves Seifer... with that stupid cowboy, I just wish he'd keel over and die."

Gina just couldn't figure it out for the life of her why Irvine rubbed her best friend the wrong way. In her mind, she couldn't imagine any female not being swayed by his savvy charm and sexy smile. Instead, Sharon picks quarrels with the lover and blows kisses at the fighter. _Sharii always likes to say that she's "ass backwards"... I guess this would be partly the reason why..._

Gina gazed across into Zell's partly open bedroom door, and out of the window where she could see the sun setting. "I wonder what Tiffany's doing now..."

"Probably watching the 50th re-run of the Golden Girls while half studying for her law final or something." Sharon scoffed, looking at her watch. "It's only 9:15, so she wouldn't be asleep yet."

"Oh..." Gina said, then stopped. _Only 9:15? When I woke up when Sharii called, it was 8:45... we weren't only here for half an hour, were we? _"Hey... is your watch right, Sharii-chan?"

Sharon frowned and looked at her watch again, this time noticing that the second hand was frozen. "Oh shit... when did my battery die? I just got this watch a month ago, how can the batteries be dead already?"

"Well, it's not only your watch, but mine, too." Gina confirmed. "That's really weird."

Zell pulled up a chair. "OH YEAH, forgot to tell you about that. That happened to us, too. When we came back here, our watches started ticking again. We didn't really think much about it until we went to report to Cid and he seemed really surprised that we were back so soon, since according to him he'd just given us the order to go investigate the portal an hour before. That's when we came up with the theory that whenever someone goes from one end of the portal to the other, time stops in whatever dimension they're originally from, but only for them."

"And it picks up when they go back?" Sharon wondered. "What in the hell..."

"So basically, our two worlds can't run in unison with each other, unless everything is in its proper place." Gina put simply. "That's really interesting to note... it's sorta like a reminder to ourselves that our real world is waiting for us to return."

"Man... so how are we supposed to tell time while we're here? I got attached to my PPG watch..." Sharon pouted.

Zell chuckled. "If you're that time conscious, then I could always pick you guys up a couple of watches for here. Just remember when you guys go back, they won't work."

Sharon nodded and stretched out, tilting the chair she was sitting in back off of its front legs. "We really do appreciate this, Zell. Hey, I wonder if we can rush out right quick and grab him some bagel dogs? Einstein stays open late today, and..." she was cut off by a knock at Zell's door.

Zell blinked and wondered who in the heck would be at his door now. "WHO IS IT?" He called out.

"It's Squall. I have something to tell you."

As soon as Gina recognized the voice on the other end, her eyes got wide and she turned to Zell with a horrified look that matched his own. Squall would NOT find it amusing to see two people he thought he left behind in their own world chilling out in Zell's dorm. Sharon stifled an "Oh, fuck" and toppled backwards out of the chair, crashing to the ground noisily. Gina winced and helped her clumsy ass up.

"Uh... JUST A MINUTE!" Zell stalled. "Okay, you guys go into my room and close the door. Hurry!" He hissed at the girls. He waited until the door to his room clicked shut before rushing to the main door and pulling it open. "Hey, Squall... aheh... what's up?" He said, running a hand through his blonde hair nervously.

The brunet on the other side of the door looked at him weirdly for a second, then walked inside. "What was that loud bang?"

"Oh... that... I uh... I was rushing to get the door and I knocked the chair over by mistake. No biggie."

On the other side of the bedroom door, Sharon had her ear plastered against it, trying to hear snippets of what was going on in the center room. "Goddamn these doors... a lot more soundproof then the ones at OUR dorms..."

"Sharii... let's not get too close to the door... what if they hear us moving?" Gina hissed nervously, her stomach doing the familiar flip-flops she hated. _I need Maalox... bad._

"They won't. Just... I wanna hear..." Sharon reached up and turned the handle as slowly as possible, and opened the door a minuscule crack and peeked out at the two figures standing just outside.

"So, uh... what did you come here to tell me?" Zell said as casually as possible.

"Since we were the team that was sent to investigate the portal, Headmaster Cid wanted me to tell you that we don't have to worry about anyone else finding it. It disappeared just 20 minutes ago."

Zell's eyes widened. "IT WHAT?" _Oh no... how are Sharon and Gina gonna get back? _"Are you sure it's gone? I mean... permanently? No chance of it reappearing or anything?"

Squall shrugged. "We don't know. We had limited knowledge about it in the first place, remember? It could reappear, but we're not sure when or where. If we had known it was that unstable, then I don't think Cid would have risked possibly losing SeeDs to an alternate dimension." Then he noticed Zell was steadily turning quite pale. _What is up with him?_

Gina and Sharon felt like they had a brick slammed into their faces. The portal was gone? Now even Sharon felt similar to her best friend, her stomach dropping quickly. _Oh God... what have we done? Are we stuck here... forever?_

"Zell... are you okay? You look a bit sick." Squall inquired.

Zell coughed and tried putting on a grin. "Uh, I'm fine... just... maybe I ate too many hot dogs today at lunch or something..."

_Ate too many hot dogs? Zell?_ Squall blinked at the tattooed blonde in front of him. "Well... that's all, then." He made his way back towards the dorm door. Zell let out a breath he didn't know he was holding.

"Oh... wait..." Squall stopped halfway out of the door and turned around. "I need that book back."

"... what book?" Zell drew a blank.

"One of the books you needed for class. Remember you had me check it out for you from the library? It's due back tomorrow, and I don't want any late fees if you won't step foot in there just because the library girl has a gigantic crush on you."

He remembered now. "OH! That book... umm... crap..." He sorted through some of the papers on a nearby table, and looked under it and around the floor. "I don't know where I put it..."

Squall rolled his eyes. "I bet you put it in that room of yours. Never mind, I'll get it." He moved for the bedroom door.

_SHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIITTTTTT!_ Sharon reeled back from the door and grabbed Gina's arm in a panic. He was coming in, and they had absolutely nowhere to hide. Their eyes scanned the small room frantically, and all they got in their search was piles of magazines, shirts, and hoodies, and one book - probably the book Squall was coming in there to retrieve. Gina tried to reason if it would be too unusual for a book to come mysteriously flying out of a room; if it wasn't, maybe they could get away with throwing the book out and having Squall catch it without seeing them hiding like typical stow-a-ways. _In your dreams, Regina._

Zell rushed towards his bedroom door and pulled it completely closed before Squall could push it open. "DON'T DO THAT!"

"... why not?"

"It's messy."

Squall blinked at Zell for a few moments more. "I know how messy you are. We shared a room at GVSU, remember?"

Zell shifted uneasily. "Yeah but... uh... it's really bad, this time. There's like... gum on the floor and stuff. Pretty bad. Yeah."

Sharon pulled herself up on Zell's bed, and started yanking at the window. _C'mon... OPEN, DAMN YOU!_ Gina felt around the edges of the window for a clasp of some sort to unlock it.

"GUM on the floor? You're a SeeD who misses the trash basket?"

"It happens!" Zell retorted defensively.

Gina silently thanked god when her shaky hand found the right latch, but then regretted it because Sharon was still pulling on the window, and the pane slid to the side quickly and slammed wide open.

Zell panicked. _I hope he didn't hear that..._

"What was that?" Squall stared at the door that Zell was still trying to protect miserably.

"Uh... probably just... umm... a Bite Bug." Zell stuttered, his grip tightening on the doorknob pressed against his back.

Sharon stepped out first, determined to test how far the jump was to the ground before Gina could possibly injure herself. It wasn't that far at all, if anything a foot or two. But any elevation was big to Gina and her paranoia that her ankle was going to become painfully twisted again, so she had stay calm in hopes that her friend would, too. _Although at this point, you'd think she'd risk a broken ankle over facing Squall's wrath..._

"There's a BITE BUG in your room? We have to eliminate it now!" Squall tried to move around to open the door.

"NO!" Zell shouted quickly. "I meant... it's not IN there, it just... flew crooked and hit the window. They get crazy and do that sometimes."

Squall began to wonder if Zell had gone insane. He was acting VERY strangely, and Squall didn't remember any Bite Bugs slamming into HIS windows at dusk. "...Zell..."

"... yeah?"

"Open the door."

Sharon waved the okay for Gina to come down. Gina shivered a bit at the cool breeze drifting through the window, and gathered up her courage and cautiously raised one leg through the open window. _Please, Zell... stall him longer!_

"Uh... why?" Zell twitched.

"Because I need my BOOK. Hyne, what is UP with you today?" Squall started to get annoyed.

"I told you, the water in the Cafeteria tasted funny and I think..."

"... I thought you said you ate too many hot dogs."

_I did? Damn!_ Mentally slapping himself, he tried to cover. "Yeah, that too. You figure the day I finally get my hot dogs is the day they don't cook them right, huh?" He laughed pathetically.

_That's it._ Squall roughly braced his arm up against the area between Zell's chin and neck, forcing his head up painfully against the door frame. "Listen to me, Zell..." He growled, applying pressure slowly to decrease his air supply. "My patience is wearing thin. Open. The door."

"Okay, okay!" He croaked, twisting the doorknob. "No need to get violent, geez!" The door swung open, and Squall released his arm and stepped inside.

Gina saw the door opening and let go of the grip on the windowsill, letting herself fall to the ground. She didn't twist her ankle, but she did lose her footing and went flailing into Sharon, causing them to fall in a heap on the grass.

Picking up the book, Squall sighed exasperatingly. _All that trouble just to get my damn book back... _He straightened up and noticed that Zell's window was wide open. "..."

Zell peeked in. "Oh! How did the window get open... the latch must've been loose.. or something..."

Gina and Sharon untangled themselves and got to their feet quickly. "We gotta get outta here!" Sharon whispered, peeling off her Lisa Frank jacket and rolling it into ball before stashing it deep inside some nearby bushes. "If Squall comes out, then we book like hell. Until then, walk carefully and slowly." Gina nodded and pulled her hood over her head, as if it would make her more invisible that way. They tiptoed through the long grass, their backs pressed against the building.

Squall looked outside and down, scanning the area. _Doesn't seem too... wait... what was that..._ he thought he caught movement disappearing out of his peripheral vision, and on impulse, he jumped out of the window to investigate.

Upon hearing the feet hit the ground, Sharon and Gina acted on an impulse of their own; to run like fuck. When Squall heard pairs of feet scrambling to get away, he raced off after them. Zell poked his head out of his window, and prayed that they got away alright.

"Okay..." Sharon huffed. "On the count of three, break off. 1... 2... 3!" At the count, they dashed off in opposite directions, causing Squall to pause and wonder which figure to dart after. After a moment's hesitation, he decided to go after the hooded figure to the left.

Gina was dying. Or, it felt like it. How many times had she found herself running today? She heard footsteps approaching fast, and tried to pick up the pace. A cramp set in from running right after eating, and her breathing became ragged. _Oh, crap..._

Sharon slowed her pace and turned around when she realized there was nobody following her. _Then that means..._ "SHIT!" She double backed to where she thought Gina went, and she arrived just as she saw Squall tackle Gina to the ground. Not really knowing what she was doing, she jumped up and attached herself to Squall's back and wrapping her arms around his neck, hoping to deter him from doing any more harm to Gina before he realized who she was.

Gina pulled half of her body up from the ground to see Sharon being tossed forcefully off of Squall's back. Watching as he got up to detain her tumbling figure, Gina got to her feet and grabbed his arm, forcing him to turn around to face her. "SQUALL, DON'T!"

Crystal blue eyes met the pleading stare of brown ones that he'd never thought he'd see again.

* * *

**Angel Of Apocolypse:** Sharon's really lucky that Seifer did not have his gunblade there. Otherwise the cafeteria would have been covered in blood! But we'll get to see what Squall's reaction is pretty soon... in this chapter, no less. LOL Glad you're enjoying it so far though!

**QueenAdreena:** That's great! I try to be descriptive (not to the point where I get lost in describing every detail but enough to give readers the experience of being in that scenario). Gina and Sharon's main purpose is to connect the readers to the characters of FFVIII by bringing up outsider-type reactions and concerns that could only be experienced by any sane person of this world who would undoubtedly be thinking and wondering the exact same things if they were in the same tripped out, impossible situations. They still have their own personalities and I'll continue to work on their development more as well… since most of the humor is seeing how they deal with what's going on around them, lol.  
Unfortunately, the story won't be finished by the time I go to China. It's going to be much longer than 40 chapters, but I don't know what the final verdict is when it comes to the number of chapters it's actually going to be, but it won't crest 100, I'll make sure of that. LOL I'll be in Shanghai, China from May 9th till August 7th. Of course I can't bring a computer, but I'll be writing the rest of my chapters in my free time the old fashioned way with a notepad and a pen. Updates won't be as frequent because I'll be super busy in Shanghai, but I'll make an attempt anyway. Maybe I can find a computer so I can update from there... that might be a good thing for me to look into since I don't want to leave people hanging. :D

**zero asakura:** I'm glad that you enjoy the fic! I dunno if it is the best fic for learning English (unless you wanted a crash course in curse words HAHA), but as long as you enjoy what you're reading it's all good!


	22. Chapter 22

Zell opened the door to his dorm, and wasn't surprised to see Gina and Sharon on the other side. They filed inside as if they were on death row, and Squall followed behind, playing the part of the warden. Sharon righted the chair she previously knocked herself over in, and sat down, with Gina taking another chair and sitting next to her. Zell leaned up against the wall next to Gina, while Squall took a similar position against the closed door, his arms folded across his chest.

"... someone care to enlighten me?" Squall asked, his voice low.

Gina winced and kept her eyes on the tiles in the floor. She knew what THAT tone of voice really meant; 'someone better tell me what the fuck is going on and NOW'.

Sharon played with one of the 40 small, blue plastic bangle bracelets on her right wrist, another one of her trademarks besides her colorful Lisa Frank jackets. She never took them off, and because of that they had shrunk to almost the size of her slender wrist. She didn't want to speak because then, she would have to look at Squall, which would be bad.

"I'm waiting." Squall said, his tone the same.

Zell looked pitifully over at them. Squall wasn't making it easy for them in the least. Deciding to speak up for them, he cleared his throat. "Um... I found them wandering around Balamb this afternoon after visiting Ma..."

"... and you bring them into Garden and hide them in your room." Squall finished for him. Zell shut his mouth.

Sharon gathered her courage and looked up. "Hey, don't scold him just because we're here! It's all our fault, okay?"

"He's as much to blame as you are."

"... no, he's not..."

"YES, he is." He put a hand up to his forehead, then addressed Zell. "Do you have any idea how much trouble we're going to be in if Cid finds out we brought luggage back from our mission?"

Gina studied the cracks in the floor. _So... that's all we are to him... luggage?_

"What did you expect me to do? Leave them out there to die?" Zell shot back. "You can't blame me for at least HELPING them out!"

Squall paused for a moment. "... they should've thought about that before jumping into something they weren't supposed to."

"Okay, just what the hell are you trying to say? That we deserve to die just because we wanted to see you guys one last time? Is that it?" Sharon replied, her eyes narrowing behind her glasses.

"Hyne, could you at least THINK about your actions before plowing headfirst into something you're not even sure of?" Squall's voice rose. "Nobody's going to be around to protect you whenever you do something stupid that lands you into hot water!"

Sharon growled. "What the fuck IS it with some of you SeeD people? You get so caught up in being high and mighty and getting paid to kick ass all over the world that you forget what it means to have feelings for anyone but yourself!"

Squall tried his best to ignore her comment. "Well, I hope you're satisfied with where your 'feelings' landed you. You got here, and now you can't go back. HAPPY NOW?"

Sharon glared at him and folded her arms stubbornly across her chest. "Fuck. You. Kthx."

The brunette sighed exasperatingly, rubbing his temples. "Is that all you can say? Is that all you EVER say? DO YOU REALIZE..." He took a moment to close his eyes and calm himself down before he continued yelling.

A sniff came from the deathly silent girl sitting next to Sharon. Everyone looked over, and a tear slipped from one of Gina's blurred eyes to the ground. She HATED being yelled at... whether it was from her parents or anyone else, she didn't like being scolded like she was the worst thing to grace the planet. It was even worse coming from Squall, since she looked up to him so much. All she wanted was to have a chance of being his friend, and she took a risk and followed him there... just to get turned away by one of the very people she'd come there to see.

Sharon reached over and hugged her, trying to stop her from having any sort of breakdown. "Don't cry, G-fuu... it's okay... Mr. Leonhart over there just has that angst pole stuck pretty far up his tight ass right now..." Gina leaned over and rested her head on her best friend's shoulder, biting the inside of her mouth to will the tears back into her head.

Zell watched Squall's eyes widen in an incredulous glare, and stepped in. "Okay, whoa whoa. First off, I don't appreciate you coming in here and making them feel like shit. They followed us, they came, and for the time being are stuck here for a while. Whatever's done is done, okay? Instead of arguing and trying to place blame on everyone else, we should all calm down and think of something."

_He's right, for once. I know I'm losing it if Zell of all people has to tell me to calm down._ "Alright... what do you suggest we do?" Squall asked.

"Umm... is there any way that we could find out for sure if the portal is truly gone?" Zell tried. "Maybe it just moved around to another place?"

Squall shook his head. "We're keeping an eye on the world map for any signs of the portal or one similar to that one. If it reappeared or moved, we would know when and where almost immediately. We can't do anything more than that unless given strict orders by Headmaster Cid."

"So... it's gonna be a big hoping and waiting game." Zell murmured, looking over to the two seated figures. "What are we gonna do while we wait this out? It might be awhile until something comes up."

Silence. All four figures in the room went into a quiet brainstorm. Gina used that time to pull herself together and wipe the few tears that did manage to slip out of her eyes away. Sharon gave her many concerned looks to make sure she was really okay, then finally looked back to her surroundings and found Squall's eyes on her, but this time without the icy glare he was giving everyone before.

"What do you know about SeeD?" He asked.

Gina and Sharon exchanged confused looks. "Uh... well... we don't know that much except from what Zell told us earlier today..." Sharon lied efficiently. _Yeah, right. I probably know more about SeeD than he does himself..._

"Yeah." Gina finally spoke up, finding her voice. "You guys are a mercenary force trained to combat monsters and settle disputes of whomever pays you guys money. Right?"

Squall nodded, and Zell looked at him quizzically. "Uh... what does that have to do with them? Don't worry, they're not going to leak out any SeeD secrets to the Galbadian Army just because you told them off."

"... It'll have a lot to do with them if I can pull some strings."

"... say wha?" Sharon asked, looking from Zell to Squall and back again. "I know it seems like I have a big mouth, but I swear I'm not gonna go rat off to some..."

Squall shook his head. "You need a place to stay, correct?"

"Well... I guess so..."

"Then you'll just stay here, as students of Balamb Garden. It's easier for us to keep track of you then, if the portal reappears."

Sharon blinked, then nodded. "Okay well, that seems like a good idea. I won't like going to school again, but I guess I'll just have to deal. What about you, G-fuu?" She asked, turning to her friend.

Gina nodded as well, and despite her previous condition, tried to force down another threatening cheese of doom_. Oh MAN! I get to be at Garden with Zell and Squall and..._

Zell looked at Squall. "Are you sure about this? I mean... you know what they have to do... right?"

Sharon waved her hand. "Oh, don't worry about us, man. We may be first class procrastinators, but we know how to pass tests and all that good shit when it comes right down to it."

Zell coughed. "Well... uh... that's not what I was talking about, really..."

The tall girl blinked. "... uh... okay... I don't get it..." Her eyes widened suddenly. "HOLD UP! Do we have to do some kind of 'personal favors' to whomever is in charge just to get in here? Because if so, there ain't no way in blue HELL I'm gonna..."

Squall slapped a hand to his forehead again while Zell burst out laughing. "NO, no... not that... we meant about your SeeD training." Zell confirmed, after calming down.

"SeeD traini..." Sharon trailed off and looked back at Gina, who also had her eyes wide in recognition. _They want us to train to be a SeeD? _"Holy... how do you figure that we're able to do all of that?"

"Like the rest of us did." Squall said bluntly.

Sharon opened her mouth to protest, but Gina surprised everyone by standing up then. "We understand, Squall." She said, keeping her voice steady while looking at him. "We jumped into that portal, not knowing that we were not only risking our lives, but your mission as well. The least we can do is try our best to redeem ourselves, and if that means training to be a SeeD, then we'll accept."

Squall looked back at her for a moment, and saw nothing but sheer determination. "Alright. It's settled, then." He turned to leave. "I'll have everything ready by tomorrow." He said before closing the door behind him.

"... a... SEED?" Sharon sputtered at the closed door. "Oh my GOD... I'm a girl that managed to run around avoiding the US Army's frequent phone calls they made to my house, and here I am about to join a... a..."

Gina sighed. "I know, I know. But we have no other options right now. We should consider ourselves lucky that Squall is even offering to help us in some way or another."

Zell scratched his head. "I don't really know what to tell you guys... even though I figured Squall would be his typical detached self, I didn't think he'd be THAT harsh."

Sharon sighed. "It's alright. Don't take that upon yourself, buddy. Squall's right; we can't expect everyone to come running to dig us out of shit we get ourselves into. In a way, this SeeD training is gonna force us to be a helluva lot more capable of dealing with such things... like Bite Bugs."

"Yeah, that's for sure..." Gina looked at Zell. "Umm... since we can't really, uh... stay with you in your already small dorm, do you think your mom will let us stay at your house in Balamb?"

"Sure. Didn't think about that for a minute. She'd be glad to have ya; she's always looking for new guests to feed." He laughed, then took a glance outside. "We'd better get a move on though, because Garden has some whacked out curfews and I want to be back before the faculty gets on my case."

Soon enough, they were back on the road to Balamb. It was spent mostly in silence, because nobody really knew what to say anymore. Gina spent that time to think about the words she had said to Squall earlier. She hadn't really been sure of her choice of words back in that room, but she had to say something in both of their defenses. Not only that, but she wasn't going to give up the chance to stay at Garden, no matter what the costs. The true resolve of a FFVIII fangirl was astounding, but was it going to be enough to get her through whatever trials laid ahead of her?

She was so deep in her thoughts that she didn't realize that they had reached Ma Dincht's house, who invited them in with a warm smile and open arms. Zell blushed when she mentioned that they'd be staying in his room, since he hardly let anyone up there in the first place, let alone girls. But Ma just ushered him out with a stern look when he tried to protest and got back to making them comfortable.

Gina went out on the back porch later that night, where she found Sharon sitting there, using her jacket as a cushion for her back that was leaning against the house. Her eyes were on the sky, admiring the thousands of glittering stars that she never got to see when she was in Detroit. Even though she didn't look over when Gina appeared on the porch, she said "I'm sorry I kinda forced you into jumping into that portal."

"Oh... don't worry about it, Sharii-chan." Gina assured with a smile, sitting down next to her. "If I really didn't want to go, then I wouldn't have. A part of me wanted to be here... and that same part is excited about possibly becoming a SeeD. I think I've finally lost my sanity, but I don't regret coming here at all."

"Even if it means that we might not be able to go back home?" Sharon asked, her eyes still on the sky.

Gina paused for a moment. As ironic as it was for her, she had forgotten about that little tidbit. "Look... we can be optimistic. What's wrong with this picture? Usually, I'm the one being angsty about stuff like this, and you're the one telling me not to think about it."

Sharon let out a small smile. "Yeah, true. I'd better get my ass together, don't I? I guess this is a better video game to be stuck in, rather than someplace like Silent Hill or something. MAN, I'd be so dead if I was there right now..." she burst out laughing at the vision she conjured of herself running around screaming her ass off as demons chased her around the town.

Gina laughed too, glad to see that her best friend was out of whatever slight funk she had found her in. "Well... we won't have Pyramid Head to face, but we might have to fight Galbadian Soldiers."

"True... but anything's better than those damn nurses." She yawned. "Come to think of it... where the hell ARE we in FFVIII? Things are all mixed up. Squall's already a SeeD... evidently Quistis is still a professor... everyone seems to still be calm, so... I don't think they're aware of Sorceress Edea's presence... if she's even HERE, what the hell..."

"I know what you mean. I don't know what to think of it either... and we probably won't know for awhile." Gina looked at the ground. "I don't know what to do in that department..."

Sharon thought for a moment, then spoke. "Well... let's just play it by ear. If anything happens that we DO recognize from the game, then let's try not to do anything to disrupt the flow. It would be better that way, so we have some sense of continuity and we would know what happens next. How's that for a plan?"

"Sounds good." Gina rested her head on the cool surface behind her, and joined Sharon in star gazing. _So... we're here. And now we're gonna become SeeDs... I hope we do well... no, we HAVE to. For ourselves, and for the Garden... and for Squall._


	23. Chapter 23

**A/N:** Original character alert: Nero Jenkson isn't even my creation, but I actually used him on a whim from one of The Paradox's presently unfinished FFVIII fics called Leather Skin. If she ever posts it up, you should give it a read; it's quite amusing.

* * *

Sharon and Gina looked up from their hearty plates full of breakfast food to see Zell bound in, one of his trademark grins on his face. "Hey, I see Ma got you guys up early for her world famous breakfast of champions!"

Upon hearing that comment, Ma Dincht smiled and turned around from her place in the kitchen. "This young lady right here might just give you a run for your money in eating, dear. She's already eaten two platefuls!"

Sharon waved while shoveling in a mouthful of more food.

Gina burst out laughing when Zell looked at Sharon incredulously. "It's okay, Zell. She's not lying... Sharii-chan tends to eat twice her body weight and sometimes STILL ends up hungry an hour later. And no, I don't know where she stores all that food, and neither does she."

Zell shook his head and gave another grin. "Well, Drill Instructor Leonhart has sent me out here to get you guys."

Sharon swallowed the food in her mouth. "What the hell? Right now? That fool don't waste no time, does he?"

"Guess not. Well, let's not keep him waiting." Gina said and pushed back her chair from the table. She hadn't eaten much, mostly because she was so nervous for that day. Sharon reached over and grabbed some leftover bacon that was on Gina's plate before getting up as well.

"Thanks for taking care of em, Ma!" Zell said as Gina and Sharon carried their plates to the kitchen and washed their hands before getting ready to go.

"Oh, you know it's no problem. With you gone over at that Garden, it makes me miss running around cooking for you." She took a pot of hot water from the stove and poured it in the dishpan in the sink. "By the way, which one of those lovely ladies is your girlfriend?"

Sharon almost cracked up as both Gina and Zell started blushing like hell. "WOW, look at the time. Thank you, Mrs. Dincht, for everything." she covered for the embarrassed two, and pulled on both of their arms to get them out of the house. "If Zell will allow it, I'll be back occasionally for some more food." As Ma Dincht accepted her gratitude, they all piled out of the house and down the road back to Balamb Garden.

"So..." Gina coughed. "What does Squall have planned for us today?"

"Uh, I really don't know. I know he was successful in getting you guys enrolled and all that stuff, but he hasn't told me much of anything. Figures for him, though." Zell replied.

"Great. I hope he doesn't have us doing 100 push ups in the dirt out in the grueling heat or something." Sharon quipped.

"Well, I wouldn't give him any ideas." Zell laughed. "He may not talk much, but I do know that he's probably going to be harder on you guys than anything."

Gina almost visibly paled. "Why? It's going to be tough for us anyway because we don't even know where to start!"

"That's why he's gonna be tough. He doesn't want to give you guys any slack, because he wants you two to know how to take care of yourselves when the time actually comes."

Sharon snorted. "Uh, huh. Well, tell him not to do us any favors. Cause I'd probably have the adverse effect of being pissed off at his ass if he says anything I don't like."

Zell looked at her. "Honestly, I won't blame you if you do. But you gotta remember that he is doing you a favor, and he's basically above you, so ya gotta deal. I have to deal with Seifer and the rest of the disciplinary committee just because he's the one in charge." He wrinkled his nose. "Talk about being pissed off... half of that was just the frustration that I couldn't clock him in the nose every time he says 'chicken-wuss' because I'd get in trouble."

"Well, I feel safe. I have Mr. Silent-Angst on my ass while having to put up with Seifer's power complex." Sharon said sarcastically. "Maybe I should've let my head get bit off by that damn Bite Bug..."

Gina tugged on her arm. "Sharii, stop that! It'll be fine. I'd rather face Squall than Seifer any day, though."

"I heard that. You should've seen the mess Seifer got us in on our field exam. Couldn't stay in one place for the life of him, and we ended up being chased out of the town by this huge spider looking robot! I've never ran so fast in my life before that day, I swear..." Zell mused.

The two girls trades glances. They knew exactly which mission he was talking about. They just nodded in sympathy as they climbed the steps to the Garden. When they reached the area of the circular hall, they spotted Squall in all of his multi-belted glory, leaning with his arms crossed against the directory. Gina and Sharon traded another uncertain glance, and Zell patted them on the shoulders. "It's alright, he's always like that." Then he looked up at Squall. "Okay, I got em here safe and sound."

Squall nodded and unfolded his arms. "Here are the set of keys to your room." He held out a ring with two keys on it, and Gina reached out and grabbed them. "Meet me back out here when you two get changed."

Sharon lifted an eyebrow. "Changed?"

"Into your uniform."

_Aw, fuck._ Sharon DETESTED uniforms. The last time she had to wear one was in elementary school, and that automatically made her loathe the colors navy blue and white; which just happened to be the colors of the cadet uniforms. "Man... how did you know our sizes, anyway?"

"Oh, I helped him eyeball 'em." Zell spoke up. "They should be about the right size."

Sharon got stubborn. "I don't see what's wrong with my Lisa Frank jacket."

Squall stared at her, but before he could open his mouth, Gina stepped in front of him. "No problem, Squall. We'll get to our room now and be back out shortly. C'mon, Sharii-chan." She dragged her friend away and around the circular area to the hallway to the dorms. After checking the number on the keys to make sure they were in the right place, Gina unlocked the door and pushed it open, surveying the place. It was much like Zell's room, only there were two doors instead of just one leading out of the main area, for the two bedrooms. Gina kind of wished that they had gotten these types of dorms back at GVSU, because then maybe she would have been able to deal with Tiffany better if she could just shut her bedroom door in her face whenever she got on her nerves.

Sharon opened the door on the right and saw the uniform laid out neatly on the bed. "Man... what the FUCK. Figures I gotta wear a SKIRT on top of that. I haven't worn a skirt since I stopped going to church." She griped as she picked it up. "By the way... how come we don't have a bathroom in here?"

"Uh, I think we have community bathrooms." Gina pointed out, which induced another groan from Sharon. She heard Sharon continue mumbling after she closed the door to her room, and Gina just shook her head as she went into her own room to change. She didn't like skirts any more than Sharon did, but Sharon was probably more prone to wear one than Gina ever would. Gina was the epitome of a tomboy, and couldn't remember the last time she even looked at the women's section of a clothing store. Men's clothing always seemed to be more comfortable, and she never really was the fashion conscious type, either.

Minutes later, they both came out of their respective rooms dressed in the uniforms. "Well, I'll give Squall and Zell eight points for getting the sizes right." Sharon adjusted the sleeve of the unbuttoned navy blue jacket and smoothed down the white shirt she wore underneath it.

Gina finished buttoning up her identical jacket and looked down at her own skirt uncomfortably. "Sharii... it shows... my knees." She declared, pulling down on the hem of the pleated skirt.

Sharon moved forward and batted her hand away from it. "Don't pull on it, girl, what if the hem falls out? Your knees are fine, we just both gotta get used to these damn uniforms, that's all." She opened the main door. "Time to go out and face the music."

Squall looked up as Sharon and Gina returned to the front area. He looked behind the tall girl to see her friend constantly pulling down on her skirt. _I didn't think they were THAT short..._

Sharon noticed the look he was giving Gina and waved it off. "Don't mind her. We both have a deep seated hatred for skirts, but she doesn't like anything that shows too much of her legs, even though they're fine. She did the same thing with her gym shorts back in high school."

Squall blinked, then just shrugged. "Whatever." He turned around. "Zell, are you coming or not?"

Zell finished up a couple of practice kicks and punches before bounding over. "Yep." He waved at Gina and Sharon. "Looks like we were right in the uniform sizes."

"Yeah... I just kinda wish I could wear the pants version..." Gina gave a half smile and tried to force her hands to stop instinctively reaching to pull down the skirt.

They all followed Squall around to the hallway that lead to the Quad. Both Gina and Sharon wondered where in the hell they were going that required them to be there, but kept their mouths shut. Any other way, they were going to find out soon enough. As they walked down the many steps and passed by the stage where they knew the Homecoming Festival was supposed to be held. Poles and lights and wires were strewn everywhere, and it looked like it had been that way for some time. They weaved their way through the mess and kept walking, but Sharon slowed down when she saw a lone figure standing on the stage, peering up at a half-fallen banner. Her brown hair was curled upwards in a flip around her face, and she was wearing a uniform similar to theirs. Wondering if her instincts were correct, she tiptoed through more of the equipment and went to the stage. "Um... hello?"

The girl turned around in surprise, not expecting someone to be around that area. "Oh, you scared me! Hi!"

Smiling, Sharon stuck out her hand. "I'm Sharon, and over there is my best friend Gina. We're both new here, and I think it's good that we get to know people other than just Squall and Zell."

"That's great! My name's Selphie, and I kinda just transferred here a little while ago from Trabia Garden." Her green eyes sparkled as she shook Sharon's hand. "Say... do you wanna be on the Homecoming committee? Nobody else seems to care about it, and so far I'm the only one planning the whole thing! Isn't that awful?"

"Sure is. Of course I'll help. We'll blow the roof off of this garden!" Sharon said excitedly. Selphie responded with a squeal and jumped off of the stage and gave Sharon a bear hug.

"OH, THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!" She said, giving a little hop. She looked behind them and caught sight of Squall, Zell, and Gina waiting a little ways off. "What about you three? Pleeeeaaasseeee?"

Squall sighed. "Now's not the time to discuss this, Selphie. We have things to do today."

Selphie pouted. "Well... okay. At least I got one of you!" She cheesed at Sharon. "If you want to know more about the festival, check the Garden's main site. You can read my online diary, too!"

"Okay. See ya around!" Sharon waved and walked back over to where they were all waiting. "She's gonna give me a run for my money in terms of hyperness."

Zell shook his head. "Man, you know she's not gonna leave you alone now that she knows you're helping out."

"Oh well. I've wanted to do something like that for awhile now, and if it means her bugging the hell out of me until the thing gets done, then I'll deal with it." She looked up as she saw they had left the quad area and was walking to a lone building near the back. She looked at Gina, and she shrugged. It's not like they had access to any area like this in the game, so they were both totally lost, now.

Pushing open the doors to the building, Squall walked right up to a sturdy wooden counter where a man was leaning back in a chair, a cowboy hat over his face. Gina and Sharon looked around the dimly lit room and observed tons of different weapons hanging on the walls, ranging from bows and arrows to melee type weapons such as daggers.

"Leonhart? I'd know your footsteps anywhere." The man behind the counter said, sitting up and taking his crossed legs off of another chair in front of him. He took the cowboy hat off of his face, which revealed a man with hazel eyes who appeared to be in his early 40s. His dark blonde hair was in a crew cut, but at the nape of his neck was a thin ponytail that trailed down his back. "I got your gunblade cleaned and in top shape for you." He reached under the counter and produced Squall's gunblade, giving the bullet shaft a swift turn before placing it on the counter.

Squall nodded his thanks. "We brought two new students who need to be outfitted with weapons." He turned from the counter to face Sharon and Gina. "This is Nero Jenkson, and he'll be helping you make a weapon selection today."

Jenkson looked at them, and nodded as they introduced themselves. "Well, ladies, have anything special in mind? We have a lot of options here, but in my years of experience, you get to learn that a weapon picks the person, not the other way around."

"Or, you could just be like me and bypass all of that weaponry and kick ass with your fists!" Zell spoke up, giving a few punches to the air as if to prove his point.

Jenkson laughed. "Boy, not everyone wants to rush into any and every situation unarmed like you have no problems doing."

The two best friends looked at each other. They didn't know what to pick, because it's not like they ever figured they'd be in a situation that required them to actually be armed. Gina bit her lip, and with a moment's hesitation, she spoke up. "Umm... do you have a katana?" Not like she knew how to handle herself with one, but she's always found them intriguing and wanted to take kendo lessons in Japan one day. _This is my chance to do something like that... sort of._

_

* * *

_**Mudora:** LOL It's quite alright if you don't review every time I update. I may look forward to the comments that I recieve each time I do, but everyone has a life outside of reviewing fanfiction, hehe. Yeah, the plot thickens... or should I say "zomg wtf the story finally GOT A PLOT!" LOL

**Aniis:** Man, I can't even count the number of stories I've forgotten to check for months on end and then on a whim I get an urge to reada fanfic and I'm like "... wow. I'm... way behind." So I know how you feel about forgetting about good stories for awhile, hehe. And I'll always try to post chapters in pairs; when I go on a writing spree, I write in clumps. LOL

**QueenAdreena:** Dude... whenever I start reading a fanfic, I no longer tell myself "Okay, I'm going to bed after ONE CHAPTER..." because I know I'll always be lying to myself. And I also have this really nasty habit of finding really good LONG fanfiction (like, over 40 chapters or something) at 3 AM and I'll STILL sit down and read it until the end. Yeah... my eyes end up burning from lack of sleep and I mess up my sleep schedule that way, but it's all in the name of a good fanfic! Gee... my priorities might be really messed up, here. lol That whole thing between Zell and Squall had me laughing while I was writing it just because I could literally SEE Zell trying to scramble for some way to hold Squall off... I swear, I think I'm too amused with my own writing at times, hehe.

**Angel Of Apocolypse:** -dies laughing at the Neil Armstrong comment- That had me rolling for DAYS. I must be easily amused or something, I dunno. LOL "One small step for man, one giant leap for mank... WHAT THE HELL IS THAT! -gets promptly eaten by a monster-" A T-Rexaur would've made them faint, man. Too many movies about Jurrassic Park probably fucked them over in the head. LOL


	24. Chapter 24

**A/N:** Holy crap. 2 weeks and I'll be in Shanghai, China. For 3 months. I think it finally just hit me. Wow. Don't worry, I'll still find a way to keep updating; from what I hear, there are internet bars around the university where I'll be staying so I'll more than likely spend half my life there if I can. Updates probably won't be as frequent as every week since I'll be so busy, but it's better than keeping you guys waiting for 3 months with nothing. That would be just mean. x.x;

* * *

Nero Jenkson went into a room behind the counter and came back with a basic katana. "Here ya go, kid."

Gina stared at the sword in the man's hands. It wasn't horribly large, but it was still a sword that she'd never - until now - had the privilege of holding. She reached out carefully and grabbed the handle of the sword, getting a feel of the weight in her hands. She glanced behind her at Sharon, who gave her a thumbs up and a grin. _Well, at least ONE of us is confident about this..._

"Of course, you're gonna have to try it out before you know for sure." Jenkson said, then turned to Squall. "Since you're here, why don't you help her test it out?"

Gina looked uncertain as she went out of a back door Jenkson was holding open for them. _What's he mean, help me test it out? Can't I do that by myself?_ Sharon and Zell stood just outside the door, looking at Gina standing in the middle of a large field.

"Hey, you ready, Leonhart?" Jenkson called inside, and moments later Squall emerged from the door, gunblade in hand. He took a place across from Gina and waited for the next command. Gina's eyes widened when she realized that any moment then, she'd have to fight him. _Oh, my gawd..._

Sharon almost fainted when she figured it out herself, and quickly turned to Jenkson. "What the hell? You're gonna let an extreme rookie fight a gunblade master?" She sputtered incredulously. "Don't you have some sparring sticks in that room of yours or something that they can use that's a little less FATAL?"

Jenkson looked at her. "Soldiers don't bring sticks into battle. How else is she going to get to know her weapon if she doesn't use it?"

He had a point... but Sharon didn't want to see her best friend get her arm chopped off. She switched her gaze nervously back towards the field, and the man laughed at the look on her face. "Don't worry, he won't decapitate her. Just think of this as a preliminary test."

_Preliminary test my ASS._ "HEY, SQUALL!" She shouted out at him. "IF GINA DOES NOT COME OUT OF THIS FULLY INTACT, THEN YO ASS IS GRASS, AND I'M THE LAWNMOWER! YOU HEAR ME?" Zell reached out and tried to calm her down, but Sharon kept her glare on the guy with the gunblade as if warning him to even graze Gina with the sword.

Squall ignored Sharon's threats and looked at Gina. "Are you ready?"

_HELL NO, I'M NOT! I'LL NEVER BE READY FOR THIS!_ "Yes." She tightened her grip on the handle, hoping to will her legs to stop shaking before anyone noticed how utterly terrified she was at that moment.

Twirling his gunblade in one hand, he clutched both hands on the handle, and looked over Gina's shoulder to the background for a signal from Jenkson. As soon as he got the nod, Squall wasted no time.

Gina could've sworn the world was going in slow motion when she saw Squall charging at her like a bull. _This cannot be happening..._ she snapped out of "deer-caught-in-headlights" mode just in time to lift the sword up and barely deflect Squall's swing. She didn't drop her weapon, but she staggered backwards, surprised at the force of the swing. _Holy shit... _Before she had time to fully register what had happened, Squall was swinging at her again, causing her to step backwards to avoid it.

Jenkson watched this fight with careful eyes, calling out pointers to Gina every now and then. She tried to comprehend what he was telling her, and some of it got through, but all in all she was too distracted by the fact that Squall Leonhart was frequently lunging at her with a weapon that could cleave her in half. Sharon took to her old habit of biting her nails nervously, praying that nothing would go wrong with the fight. Zell, although equally worried, knew that Squall wasn't using his full potential; which was good in Gina's case, because then he was sure someone WOULD get hurt.

After a few more grueling moments, Jenkson called out for them to stop. Gina thought she never heard sweeter words in her life. Her arms were aching severely, and even though her legs had stopped shaking long ago, it seems as though her arms had taken over in that category. She gave herself some credit for still being alive after all of that. Squall, however, was looking as though it was a walk in the park, and simply lowered his gunblade to his side.

"Stewart? C'mere for a second." Jenkson said, and Gina walked dazedly over to him. "You know... it's kind of hard for me to judge your worth with that weapon there if you don't do much with it."

Gina just blinked at him. If she had Sharon's audacity, she would have retorted that it was at least something to have blocked nearly all of Squall's attacks. But she barely had the energy to even think straight; it was as if a fuse had shorted out in her head the moment the battle started.

"Hey, I know what you're probably thinking. I don't mean it in a bad way." Jenkson told her. "But anyone could tell that you were scared stiff out there, and no one scared can hope to wield any kind of weapon."

Gina nodded weakly, and in the corner of her eye, she could see Sharon opening her mouth to say something in her defense, but Zell pulled on her arm to stop her.

"Now, what I want you to do is face Leonhart again. But this time, picture something in your mind that'll get you steeled up enough to actually fight back." He instructed, patting her on the shoulder. "If you can't get past him, then all the coaching in the world won't help you."

Gina turned and walked in the same dazed fashion back to the middle of the field. _Okay. Put up with Squall pummeling you again. Die a nice death. Got it. _She returned her grip to the sword handle, and braced herself as Squall took his position across from her again. Once again, there was the nod from Jenkson, and Squall was back to swinging.

Gina winced as she stood her ground, blocking his swings. _Okay, what did Jenkson say? Don't be afraid. Yeah, right. He's not standing where I am right now. _Dodging to the side, she tried to concentrate on making Squall something else. _Tiffany? Naw, I don't really want to hurt her, she just gets annoying. Seifer? Oh fuck no, he's scarier than what's in front of me right now._ Then her mind shifted to the day she and Sharon fell out of the portal. She saw the Bite Bug closing in on them. _It wants to hurt us... it wants to hurt Sharii. Can't let it hurt Sharii!_ She pictured herself back in that day, only armed with the katana as the large insect made its dive on her best friend. She rushed and swung at it, deterring it from its target. Not caring when it dodged, she just swung again, determined to hack it limb from limb.

The three spectators watched as Gina changed from the petrified person fighting for her life to someone more aggressive, swinging viciously at Squall. He switched to a defensive mode, holding his gunblade in front of him as Gina swung the katana again and again, as if she was going to break it in half to get to her target. Dodging to the side quickly, he saw Gina stumble slightly, then arched his weapon around to strike.

Gina saw the glint of metal on the side of her, and turned to block. Both of their weapons clashed in a deadlock, Squall's strength forcing Gina backwards. Ignoring the burning sensation in her arm muscles, she put all that she had into a spurt of energy that was able to deflect his gunblade off to the side. While Squall was surprised that she was able to fend him off like that, he didn't notice that Gina made an upward swing that he dodged at the last second, but the tip of the sword caught his left arm and cut cleanly through his leather jacket, leaving a cut on his skin.

At that moment, Gina snapped out of her little dream world and noticed too late that she was not fighting a Bite Bug, but it was indeed Squall, and she had just injured him. She saw Squall swing his blade back in retaliation, but because she was no longer prepared to take it, the katana was flung like a toothpick out of her grip and landed on the ground a few feet away from her. She looked at her now empty hands in confusion for a second, then up at her opponent.

"Alright! That's enough!" Jenkson shouted out. Gina bent down to pick up the fallen sword, and it was if she just now realized that she was aching all over. She willed herself to walk over to where everyone was standing, and hand the sword back to Jenkson.

"Stewart, I think you can consider that katana yours." Jenkson told her, giving a grin. "You still need lots of work, but I'm sure Leonhart will help you train. If he doesn't mind training a girl who nearly whooped his ass today."

"PWNED!" Zell pumped a fist into the air.

Squall just looked down at his arm, which was beginning to sting painfully. It wasn't a deep cut like the one Seifer had given him at the festival, but it still bled like a bitch. "Do you have a potion I could use for this?" He asked, leaning his gunblade against the side of the building.

"Sure. Should be one on the side of the counter." He watched as Squall went inside, then turned to Gina, who was getting a large hug from her best friend. "Well, now it's your turn, Gladden."

Sharon blinked. She had been so hyped up over Gina's somewhat victory that she forgot that she still had to choose something for herself. "Oh, yeah... well..." She thought back to Final Fantasy X-2 and Yuna's gun-toting image. Ever since she first saw the art for the game, she knew Yuna was going to be her idol. "Lemme see about a gun." Jenkson nodded and went inside.

Moments later, both Squall and Jenkson returned, the latter with a small pistol and bright orange earmuffs. "Alright, follow me." They walked past the place where the sword fight was to an area near the back. Squall placed a glass jar on a pedestal a little ways away, and Jenkson handed the weapon to Sharon. She listened attentively at the basic instructions he was giving her, and after fitting the earmuffs over her head, she took her position to fire at the target. She had never fired a gun before, but she did at least get to hold a couple of them because her older brother was a police officer. _But holding and firing a gun are two different things, idiotass._ Sharon lined her aim up as best she could, and pulled the trigger.

Gina jumped at the bang of the gun, and not only did Sharon nearly fall backwards at the unexpected kickback, she missed her target completely. Looking at the gun in her hands, she started laughing at herself. "Goddamn, do I feel so dumb right now!"

Jenkson gave a chuckle of his own as he ran his hand across his short cropped hair. "Don't worry, it happens to almost everyone. There was only one kid of mine that was able to hit that target the first time I handed him a firearm." His hazel eyes became slightly distant as he finished that sentence, and Sharon stopped laughing to look at him. "Who was that? And can he lend me some of his skills?" She joked.

He gave another laugh. "Yeah, he had enough skill to give to half this Garden. I used to call him Half-Pint, but I know now he's probably outgrown that nickname. Hell, he already was when I was still coaching him."

"So... you don't know how he is now?" Zell asked.

Jenkson shook his head. "Nope. I'd say it's been about 4 years since I've seen him. I hope he's doing alright..." His voice trailed off, then he cleared his throat. "Well, anyway, try that shot again."

Sharon nodded and went back into position, this time much more prepared for the kickback. It took her a couple of more tries to hit the target, and Jenkson kept having Squall put more jars on the pedestal for her to aim at again. Even though her aim was getting better, he noticed that the reason she missed the target sometimes was because she was letting herself get distracted easily. It was if her target wasn't enough to keep her interest.

"Okay, well I don't suck as bad as that first time, but I know good and damn well I need to keep working." Sharon said after emptying a full clip.

"Well, Gladden, I think you just need to be a little bit more focused on what you're doing." Jenkson pointed out. "You're more than able to hit that jar over there, but you let yourself get too excited and pull the trigger too early."

Sharon shrugged. "Well, what can I say? I'm an acute case of ADD." Jenkson lifted an eyebrow, and Sharon explained. "Attention Deficit Disorder. Happens when you play too many video games that require you to act faster than you normally would. When it comes to anything with patience, I probably couldn't hold out for long because I'd get frustrated. Zell's probably got a worse case of it than I do, since he can't sit still for the life of him." She jerked her head in the direction of the martial artist, who was off to one side, doing practice kicks and punches to the air.

Jenkson nodded thoughtfully. "Well... let me see... I want you to try one more exercise for me, then we'll call it a day." The group followed him off to another area, and Sharon noticed a machine in the background that looked like one of those automatic tennis ball launchers.

"Alright. I usually save this one for people more comfortable with a gun, but I want to try something out." He nodded his head at the machine. "That thing right there is going to fire discs out into the air, and your job is going to be shooting as many as you can down. It's gonna be harder than that jar, because they're going to be moving, but don't feel obligated to hit every one." Sharon took a few extra clips that he handed her, and put the earmuffs back on her head as Jenkson took a place in back of the machine. She nodded when she was ready, and out fired the first disc, which Sharon missed completely. Sucking her teeth, she waited for the next disc to be fired and took her next shot.

Jenkson waited until she properly gauged her timing, and then started firing the discs in short successions. When she got adjusted to 3 discs at a time, he kept increasing the number and the speed of which they were fired ever so slightly. Soon Sharon's brain was on automatic, her eyes following each individual disc as it rocketed through the air. She wasn't realizing how fast the discs were coming, she just knew that she had to shoot them down. She likened the experience to when she first played Rez and had to mash the X button on the controller faster than she thought was possible to shoot down all the enemies on the screen. When it came time to reload the clip, she did so without much of a pause and continued firing.

When it was over, Sharon had to blink a few times to get her brain readjusted to her surroundings. All she had seen for the past 20 minutes were discs, and when they had abruptly stopped, she had to will her finger to not instinctively pull the trigger. Jenkson got up from his place behind the machine and walked up to her. Sharon pulled off the earmuffs. "So... did I redeem myself for the way I pwned myself earlier?"

Jenkson blinked at her. "Gladden, were you even aware of how fast you were shooting those things down? You were like a machine." She just returned a blank look, and he laughed incredulously at her naivety. "Well, let me tell you this: You don't need skills from that Half-Pint I was referring to earlier. He was damn good at patience and shooting down one thing at a time, but when it came to this, he was flustered and didn't know how to think straight. You both have different strengths."

Sharon cheesed. "Well. I guess I don't suck that bad, after all!"

Shortly afterwards, they were saying goodbye to Jenkson, who firmly expressed his order to have them call him Nero. Squall had disappeared then, but Zell hi-fived them both and treated them to loads of hot dogs in the Cafeteria. Both Gina and Sharon were happy with how that day turned out, even if they were sore as hell. Now all they had to do was train with their newly acquired weapons and get to class on time the next morning, and they were well on their way to becoming a SeeD.


	25. Chapter 25

**A/N:** Alright. Two more chapters. I hope to at least update once more before China, and then I'll bust ass to get to a computer once I'm in Shanghai so I can update some more. Yes... I realize I am a sad, sad panda. XD

Storywise, I did a major revamp of FFVIII. Things that would make sense in a video game wouldn't make that much sense if you were to experience them in real life (i.e. when you get hit by Ultima or something, you do not have a numbered HP bar, and substance from a small bottle will not raise you from the dead), so I altered what I could to make situations more believable. And I fucked with the storyline a little so I could have creative freedom. So you guys can shoot me for that, later. LOL But at least you guys won't get bored reading something like a direct replica of what you've already played.

* * *

As the days at Balamb Garden went by, Sharon and Gina pushed the fact that they might not be able to go home to the back of their minds. Instead, they thought of the whole experience as an extended vacation. A vacation that included them having to go to class and study and all of that good mess. The only ones that knew the real reason that they were there were Squall, Zell, and of course, Seifer, but none of them told anyone else in the Garden. Both of them were indeed excited upon finding out that Quistis Trepe would be their professor, but they learned the hard way not to let themselves fall asleep during her class. A swift crack of the whip dangerously near their ears got them awake in no time, and ever since then they were always on time, forever attentive, and constantly asking questions even if they knew the answer. Even the Trepies were beginning to get annoyed with their sudden undying loyalty towards the professor.

That whip'll make people do the craziest things.

Even though they knew a lot of things in the FFVIII universe, there were a lot of things that were evidently different than what they previously thought. Guardian Forces were just that; they weren't required to be able to draw or use magic, even though they still played an important part otherwise. Once a GF knew of someone's presence, they were available for summoning in times of need. Of course, they were as fickle as always, being more partial towards some people rather than others. Gina was confused when she learned that there was basically no need for junctioning them to herself, and that all she had to do was either earn their trust by defeating them in battles or just sensing their presence from an enemy or elsewhere, but it made to be a little bit simpler. One could also build up their compatibility with a certain GF by simply calling on them more often than others, but it was said that the more one called on a GF, the more strain it put on the brain, which sometimes could cause memory lapses if overused.

The same concept was evidently applied to drawing and using magic. They were put through lots of exercises so their bodies would know what type of magic it was that they were drawing. Draws could fail if there were multiple magics available and the person that was doing the drawing wasn't sure of what to extract first, or if the person wasn't concentrating enough; which was mostly the problem in Sharon's case.

When it came to junctioning certain magic to weapons, it took a bit of practice in some sorts. It was possible to add magic to physical attacks, but to do it was difficult in that the user had to concentrate the magic on their weapons at the same time they attacked, so most just settled for using one or the other. To build a resistance to enemy elemental or status effect attacks, all one had to do was simply stock magic. For example, if someone was hit with a thunder spell, but they had 12 thunders already stocked, then the damage from the spell would be less than if they didn't have any of that magic already drawn. The more elemental or status magic a person had, then that much more resistance they possessed. Of course, it didn't always work, and if someone was hit with a Fira spell and they only had the first level Fire spells stocked, then the protection wouldn't be that great. Gina REALLY didn't like being hit by spells, especially fire ones, so she tried to solve that problem by drawing as much magic as possible whenever given the opportunity.

In terms of recovery items, the way they were used was interesting. All of them came in bottles, and were identified by different colors. Almost all of them could be poured directly on an injury for automatic relief, but of course if one was to lose a limb or something else irreparable, then no recovery items would work in that instance. Phoenix Downs were the only exception in that they could either work in a way that was similar to a smelling salt, or if that didn't work then someone had to pour it into the unconscious person's mouth. The chemicals in the Phoenix Down gave the body a sort of jump to get them moving again, but it didn't heal injuries or bring back the dead. But even with all of those great items at hand, it's still possible to die in a battle if one wasn't careful.

Needless to say, Gina and Sharon worked harder than they ever did at GVSU. Even though they still somehow found time for their trademark 5 hour conversations in Garden's cafeteria, they spent the rest of their time studying up for tests in class or training. Jenkson always kept that area near the Quad open and served as a secondary training ground if they didn't want to brave the Training Center just yet. Gina gradually got better in handling her katana, and Squall kept up his part of the deal and helped her train, even though Gina was still wary of possibly injuring him again.

Sharon also improved her accuracy with the gun, but she still couldn't make herself sit still long enough to be something like an effective sharpshooter. Instead, she just kept strengthening her ability to shoot multiple things at once, and fast. She even taught herself how to shoot with her left hand as well as her right, so she could fire a torrent of bullets in a trigger happy style that she admired about Yuna. Jenkson taught her a form of patience in another way with the disc exercise; he would load different color discs into the machine, and only tell her to fire down a specific color while avoiding the rest. In that way, she couldn't just run into everything with guns blazing and possibly end up shooting someone or something that she shouldn't have.

Both of them did take their chances in the Training Center at times, and it was there that they came up with a double team attack; Sharon would fire off a spray of bullets at the enemies, while Gina was in charge of picking a type of magic and surrounding the bullets as they fired out. It took some time for them to get it right, but after awhile it was like clockwork, and they both were happy in their accomplishment. Of course, they still ran like hell whenever a T-Rexaur made an appearance; both Gina and Sharon watched Jurassic Park enough times to have that fear of dinosaurs ingrained into them.

Zell helped out by becoming a sort of personal trainer to the girls, even though in most cases Sharon outlasted Gina in many of Zell's exercises. But they both needed it, so if the time came they'd be able to move quickly and keep moving if a situation demanded it without getting as tired. And besides; almost always afterwards Zell would treat them to ice cream for a job well done.

The days soon turned into months, and it became easy for Sharon and Gina to forget that they were actually in wait for the reappearance of the portal so they could go home. To them, the Garden WAS their home now, even if it was possible that it could be temporary. It was better for them, because if they spent most of their days worrying about whether or not they'd ever make it back, then they wouldn't be able to function, let alone train.

* * *

Sharon cursed as she once again pricked her finger with the sewing needle. "Just a little bit more left..." She was trying her hand at stitching a string of tiny seashells around a plain black cowboy hat that she had bought in Balamb a while ago. She was determined to get them on there; she didn't brave countless waves of Fastitocalon-F's (or goldfishes from hell, as Sharon put it) to get seashells that she couldn't do what she wanted after she got them. She was mostly doing it so that she could rock it with an interesting top she had found in the town as well. From the front, it looked like a snug fitting button up tan vest, with a V-neckline that sported lapels like a coat. From the back, it looked like a long tan duster, since the material was extended to almost brush the floor.

She heard the door unlock, and moments later Gina came bounding in, grinning like she had just won the lottery.

"SHARII-CHAN! I got two great things to tell you!" She whipped open the door to her friend's room, finding her still slaving over that damn cowboy hat she had left her sewing earlier.

Sharon blinked. "Dang, girl, what kinda sugar did YOU eat? The more you hang out with Zell, the more you start acting like him."

Gina just continued grinning. She was basically still the same girl that jumped through that portal five months ago, but there were some subtle changes. For one, Gina got up the courage to do what she'd always wanted but never was able to before because her parents would've killed her, and that was to streak her hair with red. Of course, they weren't conventional streaks; there were only two, one on each side of her head, and was pulled back with the rest of her hair in the usual ponytail habit that she never could break. And of course, she couldn't hang around Zell for long without being a little bit happy-go-lucky, so she had let herself be a bit more outgoing as well.

"Speaking of Zell... he got me a present!" Gina chirped, her eyes sparkling. Sharon put down the now finished cowboy hat and turned to look at her. "Well, let's see it! Better not be something cheap, or I'll kick his little hyperactive ass."

Gina took her arms from behind her back and held up a white hoodie, that sported a big yin-yang on the front, with a dragon poking its head and winding tail through the two dots. Red and orange flames licked out of its snout and added a nice touch to the otherwise colorless top. Then she turned it around and on the back was the exact same design, only the flames were shades of blue. "Isn't this just awesome?"

Sharon nodded her approval. "That's some pretty sweet shit right there. And tell me WHY you and Zell aren't dating yet?"

Gina's eyes got wide and she felt the familiar blush rise to her cheeks. "Because... we're just... friends." She saw her best friend raise a skeptical eyebrow. "Seriously!"

"Yeah, right. You have a crush on him, he obviously likes you if he's getting you stuff like this, and you both are too bashful to do anything about it. It's cute."

"Well, he got this for me for luck... in our very first mission today!"

Sharon nearly fell out of her chair. "Say what? We're technically not SeeDs yet... isn't there supposed to be a field exam or something?"

"That's the second thing I was gonna tell you. This mission is gonna be like our field exam, and Squall, Zell and Selphie will be responsible for reporting our results back to Headmaster Cid. If the mission is a success, then we're SeeDs!" Gina practically squealed.

Standing up out of her seat, Sharon stretched. "Well, this is gonna be a trip. I wonder what it's gonna be..."

Gina turned to leave the room. "We get to see when we get our butts to the front gate in 15 minutes. I'm gonna go change!" She skipped out to her own room.

Sharon blinked again. _Man, that girl might inherit my nickname of Hypaa if I don't get on the ball. Well... at least I get to sport this outfit finally. _She took the tan top off of the hanger, and pulled out a pair of long black pants to go with it. After getting dressed, she took a look at herself in the tall mirror she had on the back of the door, and was pleased with the final result. Grabbing the cowboy hat off of the table, she walked out just in time to catch Gina coming out of her own room, wearing the prized hoodie. She was also wearing white bondage pants along with her usual black and white sketcher sneakers. As surprising as it may seem, it wasn't that difficult to find the pants; they both figured that if Squall could dress like he does, then fashion in the FF8 universe wasn't that bad.

"Alrighty... ready to go and possibly get our asses kicked by Galbadian Soldiers?" Sharon joked, tying up one of her black boots.

Gina picked up her katana that was leaning against the wall and placed it in a sheath that she wore strapped to her back. "Hell yeah."

Together, they made their way to the front gates of the Garden, where they spotted Selphie's bright yellow jumper almost immediately. She waved to them and ran forward. "You guys made it before Zell! That's pretty sad... he's supposed to be a role model for you guys!"

Sharon put a hand to her forehead. "For some reason, I'm not surprised."

Squall stood in his typical fashion, with a member of the Garden Faculty and Headmaster Cid. He looked up when Selphie rushed off to greet Gina and Sharon. He saw the hoodie that Gina was wearing and lifted an eyebrow slightly. _That's one of Zell's favorite hoodies... I never thought he'd give it up. _He then examined Sharon. _I know she'd hate it if I said anything, but she kind of looks like a female Irvine in that getup... _Squall gave a nod when they returned to the waiting spot, while the Garden Faculty tapped his foot impatiently. "One more minute..."

Gina and Sharon stepped up and saluted Headmaster Cid, who gave them a warm smile and a nod in return. He was proud of how fast they had adjusted to Garden and the training, and had decided at the last minute to put them in this mission. Not only did Cid think that Sharon and Gina would be able to handle themselves, he had great faith in Squall and the others.

At that moment, Zell came zooming in on a T-board, having fun with twists and turns as he approached the group. Gina grinned; Zell had offered to teach her how to ride one of those things, but Gina found it more entertaining watching people who knew how to do it already. Not to mention she didn't want to fall off of it and twist her ankle.

"Hey, looks like I got here just in time!" Zell cheesed and hopped off of the T-board.

The Garden Faculty shook his head. "How many times must we tell you... T-Boards are prohibited within Garden!"

"But... these are really cool! And they might come in handy on a mission one day." Zell pleaded.

The faculty just snatched up the T-board. "You may be a member of SeeD, but you still are a student at this Garden, and are responsible for setting an example for the rest of the students here... like the two cadets that will be accompanying you on your mission today."

Zell just pouted, and Headmaster Cid cleared his throat. "Well... anyway, about your mission. You are to catch a train in Balamb to Timber, where you will be supporting a resistance faction. A member of the faction will be contacting you upon your arrival at Timber Station."

Sharon and Gina traded glances. _Is this what mission I think it is?_

"The person will speak to you and say 'The forests of Timber sure have changed.' You must respond with the password phrase, 'But the owls are still around.'" The faculty further explained. "Following their orders is of utmost importance."

Cid nodded. "Squall, I am appointing you to be the squad leader. Use your best judgment based on the situation. Zell and Selphie, you are to support Squall and do your best to carry out his orders. Sharon and Regina, you are to support them as well, keeping in mind that you are being judged accordingly."

All of them gave a final nod and salute to the Headmaster, and they followed Squall down the steps and along the road to catch the next available train to Balamb. Sharon had to keep herself from laughing as they were being briefed; it was nothing like getting an exact mission from the video game. It would be a piece of cake, hopefully... unless something went wrong.

* * *

**QueenAdreena:** Selphie seems to be such an easy character to write about because she's so carefree and happy for the most of it... so unless someone's naturally an emo gothy "I hate my life" kind of person it's not that difficult. My hyper bouncy side relates a bit to Selphie anyway, so all I had to do was picture myself hyped up on approximately 2 lbs of sugar. :D And as I said, I'll update once more (or try to) right before I leave. My priorities are messed up cause I put fanfiction in front of packing. LOL

**Aniis:** I wish I could visit Japan too! My first choice was going to Japan, especially since I took Japanese for a year and half to prep myself up for it, but then I changed my mind one day and decided to go to China. Crazy, huh? Well, I can't say that I won't enjoy myself in China, but this is basically all my money so... chances are this is the only foreign country I'm going to go to for a very long while, lol.

**Angel Of Apocolypse:** Psht, I don't blame you! In a story, I have creative freedom, so anybody can basically be okay at almost anything if I write it well enough. But in real life... AHAHAHA you'd see me running like a bitch from anything and everything that looked remotely sinister and they'd have to protect my ass cowering in a corner with my knees knocking. Bugs are not my forte, either... so I would be spraying Country Fresh Raid on a Bite Bug until the sun went down and I made a mini-Raid river or something. This is why Square makes characters that have more balls than we do so we can do anything like make them face things like Behemoths and Marlboros and shove them into mysterious caverns by themselves... yeah. Final Fantasy rules. LOL

**Arkv01: **Wow, your review makes me happy. Next to the E-mail I got from another person a while back, that's the longest review I've ever gotten. And I think I'm going to go jump off the top of my building to see if I remain unscathed when it's all said and done. LOL But yeah... I may be going to China, but I still plan on finding at least SOME way to update... it might be a futile attempt, especially since I look at all the stuff I have to do, but I'm not giving up quite yet. But no, I'm not Chinese... I'm black! Still trying to figure out whether or not that's a good or a bad thing, LOL.


	26. Chapter 26

Sharon and Gina walked into the train car after Squall, with Zell following close behind. Selphie hopped in and stood expectantly in front of the sliding door leading to the front of the train, bouncing up and down a little on the tips of her toes.

"Open... open... open... open..." she chanted softly, drawing a weird look from Squall as he passed the ticket under the sensor to unlock the door. She flashed him a huge smile as the door finally gave way. "Thank you! I love trains!" Selphie said as she rushed past and promptly glued herself to one of the huge windows.

Gina and Sharon exchanged a look and had to keep themselves from bursting out laughing, because if they did, they wouldn't stop for a very long time. Both of their thoughts kept traveling back to a Final Fantasy flash video they had seen online to the chocobo song, more specifically the part where a chibi Selphie was loading tons of sugar into her mouth while crying out "I LIKE TRAINS! I LIKE TRAINS!"

Squall glanced over to the pair that was not doing such a good job of concealing impending hysterical laughter over Hyne knew what. _They always seem to have some inside joke going on..._ Inwardly hoping that they would calm down soon enough to take their first mission seriously, he walked through the sliding door where Zell was busy gawking over the VIP cabin.

"AWWWW YEAHHH!" he whooped loudly, drawing a heavy sigh from Squall. Sharon and Gina appeared in the hallway shortly thereafter, and followed the hyper blonde and the stoic leader into the lushly furnished room.

"This is just so awesome!" Zell continued, plopping down on one of the sofas and surfing through the magazines. Gina noticed that a magazine labeled Pet Pals Volume 1 had fallen out of the pile, and reached over to pick it up all while staring at it in awe. _Gotta stop this, man... I can't up and act like I've never seen a magazine before. _But of course, this was an entirely different situation.

Zell's blue eyes lit up suddenly, and his interest in the reading materials were forgotten. "Dude... I bet you guys don't know about Timber!"

Leaning back against the ruby red seat while folding his arms across his chest, Squall replied, "If it's not important to completing our given mission, then I don't care."

Zell scrunched up his face. "There you go, being such a tightass again. What if everyone else wants to know?"

Squall opened his mouth to protest, but was surprisingly cut off by Gina. "Timber was a country that was aptly named in the past for its large quantities of deep forests." Gina began, almost as if on automatic. "About 18 years ago, the Galbadian army invaded, and Timber fell without much effort. Their influence still remains strong to this day, even though there is said to be lots of resistance factions scattered throughout the town if you know where to find them."

Zell blinked at her in shock, not only because she knew so much information about a town she'd never been to before, but also because it was almost as if she copied the words right from his brain. _Must be that psychic thing Sharon mentioned back when I first ran into them._

Sharon shot Gina a warning glance. Her best friend caught the look and immediately registered what she had just done. She smiled sheepishly at the two guys. "I, uh... did my homework. Lots of it."

"Yeah. Lord knows what Instructor Trepe would've done to us if we didn't." Sharon mentioned offhandedly, causing Gina to whine briefly. Both of them STILL remembered the day Quistis had cracked that whip dangerously close to their ears when they fell asleep in her class, and even though they were PRETTY sure she'd never resort to actually hitting students with her weapon, they didn't want to think of the possibilities, either. Squall blinked and wondered just what happened that made them fear Quistis almost to the point of idiodicy. _She's not an overbearing dominatrix, even though she might come off as that sometimes._

All of them snapped out of their thoughts to see Selphie wander in the room, almost as if she was in a trance. Her eyelids were drooping dangerously low, enough to make Sharon think that she couldn't see where the hell she was going.

"You guys... I don't feel too good..." the normally hyper girl whimpered, teetering a bit off to one side, then the other. Squall stood up sharply just as Selphie collapsed to the floor. "What in the..." He reached over and felt Selphie's head to make sure that she didn't have a fever, then looked over to see Zell experiencing the same thing. As the martial artist slumped to one side on the couch, Squall switched his gaze to Sharon and Gina, fairly relieved to find out that they seemed to be unaffected by whatever had caused the previous two to fall out. He started to straighten up, until a peculiar buzzing rang in his ears, and his vision blurred dangerously before blacking out.

Laughing a little bit in disbelief, Sharon stepped over Squall and Selphie on the floor and sat down on the couch next to the unconscious Zell. "Well. Doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out what they're experiencing right about now."

Gina nodded and sat in a chair across the room, looking over them. "Dude, but I'm kinda jealous. I was kinda hoping that since we're here and all, that we'd get to see Laguna and the rest in their younger adventures."

Sharon sighed. "True, but it really wouldn't make sense for us to see what they're seeing. It's their journey to take, we're just kinda... along for the ride? Which is kinda good, anyway... I didn't really want to up and black out and find myself in Ward's body or something like that."

"So... I guess we just sit and wait for them to wake up."

"Yeah... they'd better wake up before we reach Timber. God... we're just in disc fucking ONE. This is going to be a LONG journey." Sharon rubbed at her temples. "Hey... you know who we get to meet once we get there..."

Gina let out a snort. She knew exactly who, and wasn't sure if she should be glad or not. She didn't hate Rinoa, but she wasn't exactly her most favorite female, either. Mostly, she and Sharon shared the exact sentiments regarding on how the game poorly fixed two people as different as night and day together. They knew opposites attracted, but geez... it seemed to happen so suddenly and out of nowhere, and the fact that the player was able to read Squall's thoughts all the way up until that fateful point, you could've sworn he thought Rinoa was just a terrible nuisance.

_Maybe... maybe this time, they'll fall in love the right way_, Gina thought to herself. _I could accept it if they did. I know Squall... he's too cautious of a person to up and fall for someone that easily... they'd really have to earn his trust, first. At least, that's how I would act if I was in that kind of situation._

Both girls stayed in silence for a while until the unconscious group finally began to stir. Zell gave a huge yawn and rubbed at his eyes, while Selphie pulled herself up from the floor, blinking rapidly. Squall was the last to come to, getting up off of the floor and letting his eyes focus and his brain remember where he was.

"Were we all... asleep?" Squall asked tentatively.

"Maybe some SeeD haters put some sleeping gas in the vents?" Zell wondered, looking around.

Selphie started to agree until she saw Gina sitting off to the side. "Well... it doesn't look like Gina was affected, so it couldn't have been that. Or Sharon, either." She scratched her head for a bit, then smiled. "Well, at least I can say that this Laguna in my dream was so cute!"

Zell did a double take. "Hey! There was a Laguna in your dream, too? Was he a Galbadian soldier?"

Selphie nodded quickly, and Squall murmured "Laguna, Kiros, and Ward...", bringing both SeeDs to look at him in shock. "This trips me out..." Zell started. "We all can't have the exact same dream at the exact same time... can we?"

"Maybe it's not just a dream." Sharon said mysteriously, causing everyone to stare at her expectantly, but she wasn't about to continue. Thankfully, a train announcement signaling their arrival at Timber sounded just then, reminding them all that they had a mission to complete. Gina was the first one up and out of the door, and Sharon followed until she came to the door, and turned around.

"Hey Squall, aren't you supposed to be our leader? Better get it together; never know when you might have to do something like this again." She said with a wink and a grin, and slipped out.

Squall blinked. _Just what in the hell was that supposed to mean?_ He didn't like the notion like she knew something that he didn't, but what was he supposed to do about it now? She was right in one sense; he couldn't let himself be so easily distracted by a dream, at least not when he was the leader and had to focus for the sake of his team. Pushing his thoughts to the back of his mind as he was always so used to doing, he followed the rest of the group out of the train and onto the steps of the train station, where a man wearing a brown vest over a white T-shirt stood, looking at the group expectantly.

"Oh, the forests of Timber sure have changed!" he dramatically said, causing Gina to choke back a threatening bout of laughter.

"But the Owls are still around." Squall replied, and the man nodded in recognition. "Welcome to Timber, sir. This way, please."

The group made their way across the small street to yet another boarding platform, where a small one-car train was parked. Filing in, they were met by a skinny man in a blue shirt and black shorts, who nodded to his colleague before addressing them. "So, you guys are SeeDs?"

"I'm the squad leader, Squall. This is Zell, Selphie, Sharon, and Gina." Squall replied, shaking his hand.

"Nice to meet ya. I'm Zone, the leader of the Forest Owls. That's Watts over there, the guy that brought you here."

"So, let's get it on with it. What do we do?"

Zone blinked at his take-charge attitude. "Just take it easy, already. Besides, we still have to wake up our princess." He winced as a sharp pain in his stomach made itself apparent. "I guess it wouldn't be too much to ask you to go and get her for us, Squall. She's up those stairs in the last room."

Squall rolled his eyes. "So, we were hired to run errands?"

Sharon, who had enough of watching the game unfold line by line in front of her, nudged Squall in the arm. "Oh, just go get her already. She's part of the group, and obviously just as important as everyone else here. Just think of it as completing your first order."

Squall responded by putting his hand to his forehead briefly before turning and trudging up the stairs to go retrieve 'the princess'. Zell stood off to one side, practicing kicks and punches, and Gina walked over to Zone, who was kneeling down clutching his stomach.

"Stomach problems?" Gina asked, and received a pained nod from him. She kneeled down next to him and patted him on the back. "I know how that is. I think I have something here that might help a bit..." She reached into her pockets and felt past the pack of Mentos she'd been meticulously saving since she'd arrived at Garden, and pulled out half a roll of Rolaids. She handed the pack to Zone with a smile. "Here, take a couple of these."

Zone took the roll and looked at it for a minute. _I don't remember seeing any of these... Rolaids being sold anywhere... but it's worth a shot if I can get this damn stomachache to go away._ Gina stood up, happy with her accomplishment, and everyone turned to see the sliding door at the top of the stairs open, and Squall returning with a girl with black hair streaked with chestnut, wearing a long sky-blue sleeveless duster over a black tank top.

"Everyone, this is Rinoa." Squall announced. "Rinoa, this is Zell, Selphie, Sharon, and Gina."

"Hi everyone!" Rinoa chirped with a wave. "Well, let's get you guys briefed. This way." She started to move towards the strategy room, when she was stopped by Gina, who had just realized she had something in the large pocket of her hoodie that she'd been holding onto since the train ride.

"Umm... I guess I shouldn't still have this since it technically wasn't mine to begin with, but I was wondering if you would like it." Gina said, and produced Pet Pals Volume 1 to Rinoa. She didn't really know why she giving it to her, besides the fact that all it would do was take up room in the pocket. _Maybe I'm just feeling guilty about dissing her character so much when I first played the game..._

Rinoa's brown eyes widened as she took the magazine. "Wow, I've been looking for this forever! I can finally teach that new trick to Angelo!" She reached out and impulsively hugged Gina, causing her to stagger backwards a bit and freeze up like a board. "How did you know I wanted this?"

"Oh, she's psychic." Zell spoke up with a grin.

Selphie's eyes popped open. "For real! Gina never told me that!"

Squall stifled another exasperated sigh. They weren't even halfway into the mission and everyone was already distracted. He had been slightly amused at the fact that Gina reacted the same way he had when Rinoa had glomped him when she first realized who he was, but now wasn't the time for any of this. "Um, excuse me... in case we haven't forgotten..." Squall hinted.

"Oh! Yeah, you're right. Sorry about that." Rinoa unlatched herself from the still startled Gina, and flashed another smile. "This way, please!"


	27. Chapter 27

**A/N:** Damn. Less than a week before my plane departs for China. It must be the stress and everything this whole week leading up to it, but I think it hasn't really sunk in yet that I'm going to be out of the country for the first time in my life (okay well... I've been to Canada lots of times, but since I live in Detroit and Canada might as well be my next door neighbor, it's almost as if it's nothing special. I mean, I don't even need a Passport to go to Canada, I just get in the car and go e.E;) Umm... I plan to make myself right at home in the internet cafe's that are rumored to be near the campus so... I'm going to try my damnest to find time to update. Even if it's not going to be as frequent as every week, I don't want to leave everyone hanging!

* * *

Gina rested her head against the cool metal frame of the Forest Owl's base, sighing heavily. No matter what, she would NEVER ever jump between moving trains AGAIN. Sure, it had been no surprise what they had to do, but actually going ahead and DOING it... yeah well, that was the problem. The whole time, Gina was worried about missing the top of the train and having something terrible happen to her already weakened left ankle. She was grateful, however, that the most they had to do was keep up with the group and stay on look-out for the guards while Squall did most of the uncoupling, but standing on top of moving trains was not on Gina's to-do list. Using her "psychic" powers, she informed the group that the sensors weren't working on the 2nd train before they bothered themselves with the whole stop and go plan. _Well, at least there's an advantage to Zell's misinterpreted information and big mouth; I can pretty much predict what will happen next without being so suspicious._

Sharon was kneeling a little ways away from Gina, petting Angelo. _I may not care for Rinoa that much, but her dog rawks._ She scratched him behind the ears, causing Angelo to wag his tail happily and attempt to lick Sharon on the face.

Selphie stretched a bit and straightened out her yellow jumper. "Well, that was fun! But it would have been more fun if we could've blown it up with a missile launcher..."

Walking down the stairs from the previous hallway, Squall gave Selphie a look as if to evaluate whether she was really serious about blowing trains up with missiles, and took a place against a wall while Watts gushed over and over about what a perfect job they had done. Rinoa appeared shortly afterwards, causing Angelo to bark and gallop his way over to his owner.

"Well, are we all ready for 'serious negotiations' with President Vinzer?" Rinoa announced, her eyes shining with confidence.

Squall lifted an eyebrow at the phrase 'serious negotiations', and Zell whooped and pumped a fist into the air. "HELL YEAH! This is what I'M talkin' about!" Selphie produced her nunchaku with a bright smile, and Sharon and Gina traded glances while standing up. _This is going to be amusing..._

Leading the group into the abducted president's car, Rinoa stood squarely in front of the seated figure, her hands balled up into fists at her sides. "...President Deling! As long as you don't resist... you won't get hurt!" Her voice wavered a little bit towards the end of her threat, and Gina was a little bit surprised at how easily she already seemed uncertain before anything had happened.

"And if I do resist... what would you do...? Young lady?" the supposed president replied, his voice pattern seemingly strained. Rinoa gasped and stepped back, tripping over the hem of her long blue sweater. Squall glanced at her sharply, and produced his gunblade just in case the president had a concealed weapon.

"Boo-hoo... too bad... I'm not the president. I'm what they call... a body double." The fake president revealed, standing up from his seat and taking a few steps forward. Rinoa looked up at him, clearly terrified, and tried to scoot backwards some more to keep him from towering over her.

"A body double?" Gina said, keeping her voice authentically ignorant. She had to play this out so they couldn't depend on her to know EVERYTHING, and keeping to the original game as closely as possible.

Sharon sighed heavily, already impatient. "So, you're not Vinzer?"

The body double turned with visible difficulty to face her, as if the skin he was in was beginning to annoy him. "No, I'm nOT... youNG... LaDy..."

"Oh. Well then... kthxbai." With that, Sharon reached to the twin gun holsters on either side of her, pulled out her pistols, and before anyone had any time to protest, had fired a pair of bullets into his chest. Upon receiving the unexpected hits, the false president's eyes widened in shock before slumping forward to the ground, inches away from the still grounded Rinoa.

Gina almost did an anime fall. "SHARII-CHAN!" Without having to say anything else, she knew that her best friend would understand the hidden meaning in the way she had voiced her name. Sharon shrugged in return. "I don't know about the rest of you, but I wasn't up for listening to that asswipe talk shit for another hour and a half."

Zell scratched his head. "Yeah well... me neither... but... you just killed a human being without flinching. Are you okay with that?" Squall stared at her soundlessly as well, but inwardly wondered if every single time she got impatient if she wouldn't hesitate to fire caps into whomever pissed her off. _She's beginning to remind me of Seifer right about now..._ Not to mention that she hadn't lowered her weapons since she fired the shots, as if she was expecting him to rise from the dead or something.

"I didn't kill anything human, so therefore I have nothing to worry about." Sharon replied evenly, her eyes still trained on the fallen image of the president. Squall opened his mouth to ask just what did she mean by that, when Selphie let out a terrified shriek and pointed to what Sharon just shot. Everyone stared as the body of the president split open, and a mutated form erupted from the corpse as if it were a cocoon. Various shades of green fluids splashed across the floor as Gerogero straightened up to its full height, giving an animalistic growl as one largely mutated foot stamped.

"Oh my gawd... that is just nasty." Gina slipped out, unable to hide her disgust. Seeing it pixelated was one thing, in real life was a different ball game. She pulled out her katana, not really wanting to get close enough to her opponent to use it. Apparently both Zell and Selphie shared the same sentiments, because even though they both had assumed fighting stances, neither of them looked too enthusiastic about touching a monstrosity like that.

Squall, utilizing his leader status, barked out, "Selphie, get Rinoa away from... whatever that thing is. Sharon, you cover the rest of us from a distance while we attack." Selphie nodded and scurried her way towards the frozen girl, and Squall and Zell jumped forward to attack. The gunblade specialist swung his weapon in an arc, cutting a deep gash in the larger arm of the mutated beast. Howling in pain, it retaliated by swinging the arm in a wide birth towards its attacker. Squall ducked swiftly, but Zell was hit instead, sending the martial artist flying through the air and crashing into a row of booths and tables lined on one side of the train car.

"Damn! That's gotta hurt." Sharon winced, and fired in a trigger happy fashion at Gerogero, leaving a series of bleeding wounds into its towering frame. Growling, it spat a large cloud of green mist out at her, and Sharon scrambled away just in time. "Aww HELL naw that bitch didn't just try to BREATHE on me!" She grumbled, loading a fresh clip into each of her guns.

Gina stood in the same spot she originally was, watching as Zell climbed his way out of the debris, looking mighty ticked off. _If this continues, we'll be fighting this hunk of flesh forever! _Gina racked her brain for an alternate solution. _Can't summon a GF since this space is too small... what else... THINK, Regina! _Furrowing her brow for a moment longer, as soon as the idea popped into her head, she grinned. Re-sheathing her katana, she concentrated one of the few Life spells she had stocked, and unleashed it on the undead creature. As the aura of holy light enveloped Gerogero, it screamed in agony as it melted in a similar way as the Wicked Witch from the Wizard of Oz. All that was left when the spell was finished, was a glob of green ooze that still faintly bubbled.

A moment of silence passed, and Selphie was the first to jump up from a corner in the cabin, distracted from her job of trying to calm down the shaking Rinoa. "WHOO HOO! GINA SAVED US!"

Blushing from the sudden attention trained on her, she smiled sheepishly and turned her own attention to Zell. "Um, are you okay? You took a pretty nasty hit." He rubbed his arm and cracked his muscles a little bit before flashing his trademark grin. "Yeah, I'll live. I've taken worse than that, so don't worry about me." He turned his spiky blonde head to the leader. "You okay, buddy?"

Squall nodded, then looked at Gina. "That was pretty perceptive. I never would've thought to cast a healing spell to kill it off quickly."

"That's... cause... she's... PSYCHIC!" Selphie squealed, running over to give Gina a hug. Squall put a hand to his forehead. _I've heard of feelings of premonition, but I'm not sure I believe in psychic powers. _He was interrupted from his thoughts by Zone bursting into the cabin, stopping to stare at the mess the monster created. "What in the..."

"The president... was a fake." Rinoa informed him, finally finding her voice and her will to stand. "I can't believe we fell for it..."

Selphie frowned and rushed over to her. "Don't be sad! There's no way that you could've known about that beforehand, so try not to let it bother you, okay?"

"Right. The thing we have to worry about now is figuring out what to do from here." Squall said. Watts came in next, saluting them all. "Info, sir! New info! It's big news! I found out the real reason why the president is here, sir! The president's going to the TV station to broadcast!"

"Broadcast... what?" Rinoa asked.

"Everybody! Love! And Peace!" Selphie flashed a peace sign, which gained odd looks and blinking from everyone in the room.

Zell frowned in thought. "Doesn't make sense why they'd do it from a town like this rather than Galbadia though..." Then his eyes lit up. "Hey, Squall! Remember in our field exam, there was that communication tower in Dollet? Do you think that has something to do with it?"

"Maybe..." The group walked from the pretty much destroyed train cabin to the strategy room, where the model of the previous train abduction plan was still laid out on a table in the middle of the small room.

"It must be big, whatever the president has in store, if he feels the need to use radio waves that haven't been used in 17 years." Zone mused. Rinoa stared at him for a second, then got a great idea. "What if we were able to crash whatever the president has planned and turn it into a declaration of Timber's independence?"

"Sounds nice. And just how are we supposed to do this?" Sharon inquired. She was met by the sheepish shrug from the princess of the Forest Owls, which earned her many incredulous stares. Gina stayed near the back of the train and let out a cynical chuckle while examining their sticky board that was filled with torn articles of Anarchist Monthly. _This would be where Squall gets pissed off._

"... okay. Can I see the contract you have with our Garden?" He asked, a hint of annoyance in his voice. Rinoa blinked and fished for it on the table and handed it to him, which he snatched rather pissantly. Those from Garden crowded around to read its wordy contents.

Zell's eyes glazed over. "... the hell..."

"It means that we, referred to as 'Party C' are to remain under the employment of The Forest Owls, which is indicated by 'Party B', until Timber's independence." Gina translated for them, not only getting surprised looks from her fellow SeeDs, but also from Rinoa, who was getting ready to fish out the more understandable copy of the contract.

"Well. Ain't that cute." Sharon rolled her eyes. "Who knows when that'll happen."

Rinoa pouted. "Hey, it'll happen soon enough as soon as we make our broadcast! First things first; we're heading for the TV station. Watts said that it's behind the Timber Maniacs building, and if I'm right then I know a quick way we can cut around through to there. We should be disembarking back in Timber any moment now, but I guess we would have to be on our toes, since word is probably out about our failed abduction and Galbadian soldiers will be on the lookout for suspicious characters."

Squall halfheartedly nodded, his brain still going over the contract that his Headmaster conjured up. _Until Timber's independence! What in the world is Headmaster Cid thinking? I don't feel like being stuck following orders of a group that barely knows what they're doing! _At that point in time, everyone felt the train grind to a stop, and Watts announced that they had arrived in Timber.

As Rinoa and the rest of the group from Garden stepped out on the tiny boarding platform outside, Gina was stopped by Zone rushing forward and handing her back the roll of Rolaids. "Thanks for letting me have some of those things. Whatever they were, ever since I've taken them, I haven't had any more stomach problems!" Gina smiled and waved goodbye to them as she stuck it back in her pockets, and followed everyone off of the platform.

Sharon fell back to walk with her best friend. "Well, I think we did good for our first real fight, don't you think?"

"Psht. I wasn't about to even come near that zombie, so I had to find another way to deal with it before everyone noticed I wasn't making a move to get its guts all over my outfit." Gina laughed, smoothing back a few strands of hair that had come loose from the ponytail at the nape of her neck. "Though, I really have to get better at keeping myself from laughing when certain things happen; people are going to think I'm terribly jaded if I don't."

Sharon waved it off. "Oh, whatever. If you meant regarding Rinoa, then I would just say 'fuck it' and do whatever, because..."

"FREEZE! YOU'RE THOSE KIDS FROM THE RESISTANCE GROUP, AREN'T YOU?" A sudden voice caused the entire group to turn to see a gathering of Galbadian soldiers brandishing their weapons.

"... oh shit. Maybe we should pick up the pace and get this whole TV broadcast thing over with before they attract more of their friends." Sharon gulped, and tugged on Gina's arm.

Gina, however, had another idea, and concentrated a blizzard spell on the shoes of the soldiers. As they tried to go forward to restrain them, they all fell over in a heap and realized that their feet were frozen to the ground. Once again, Gina didn't do a good job of restraining her laughter at their helplessness, and turned her head to catch a look from Sharon.

"Hmm?" Gina feigned innocence, making her angelic face so sweet that a halo could have popped over her head.

"How did I know you were going to respond with that." Sharon sighed, and both of them dashed off with their allies before the Galbadian soldiers discovered the sense to untie their shoes to chase after them.

* * *

**Mudora:** Yeah, I laughed at the adamant burn to Rinoa's evident lack of painting skills of the train models as well. Especially when they kept harping on how poor it was... Selphie was all like "... -twitch- Yeah... it's REALLY bad..." HAHA! Unfortunately, I didn't include that part in my fanfiction, but we all know that's what really went down, hehe.

**QueenAdreena:** I really tried not to make Rinoa too annoying; I'm trying to stay true to all characters, even if I may like some more than others, ya know? I will have to admit that it's harder to write Rinoa's parts as compared to the rest of the characters because I feel like she is the only character I can't really connect to. I think the reason that I portrayed the characters so well, even back when I didn't play the game and gave the fanfiction a shot anyway, was because it was so easy to 'see through their eyes'. With Rinoa... while I can sympathize with her at some points, I really don't like her character that much and I don't understand why she does some of the things she does in the game, so it clouds that connection and makes it difficult for me to go with the flow.  
Your stomach made the same noise as Zone's? LMFAO! -hands her some of Gina's Tums- Multiple flavors:)

**Angel Of Apocolypse:** Yeah, you saw how Gina reacted. Like "zomg wtf don't touch me plzkthx you don't know me like that..." Of course, people like Selphie can get away with glomping random people just because that's who she is and you can't help but love her... but maybe I'm just speaking through my bias against Rinoa... which is really bad of me, hehe. -sheepish grin- And Zone having contractions? AHAHA there's another statement that you made that's going to have me thinking about it at random times in the day and bursting out in laughter and making everyone around me look at me as if I'm insane... which I am... muhaahaha!


	28. Chapter 28

Sharon leaned against the railing of the landing they had just reached, perfectly set below a large TV fixed on the side of a building. She removed her cowboy hat for awhile to enjoy the warm breeze blowing through her hair, while waiting for Rinoa to make up her mind on what to do next.

"Okay, okay... we can't rush in because we'd be outnumbered. So... what if we wait for the president and everyone else to leave? That would work... right? I mean, the message I have to give won't be as profound, but it'd be something... right?" Rinoa stopped pacing back and forth to stare at Squall directly, who hadn't said a word since they'd arrived. "Uh... hel-lo? I'm asking your opinion, here."

All she got was a single blink, a disconcerted shrug, and the classic, "Whatever."

Obviously deadpanned by his reaction, she stamped her foot in annoyance. "Whatever? What kind of a leader ARE you, anyway?"

Sharon snorted, and when Rinoa turned her indignant gaze to her, she quickly donned her cowboy hat and pulled the brim over her eyes and looked the other way.

"I don't think you have any right to be questioning me." Squall warned, feeling the cool demeanor he'd constructed for himself fail.

"Oh really? And why is that?" Rinoa quipped dangerously, her brown eyes narrowing. Zell and Selphie traded glances and wondered if they should step in or just wait it out. Neither of them really wanted to be the ones to piss Squall off, but if Rinoa felt she could do that and get away unscathed, then so be it.

When Squall lapsed back into his silent mode to try to cut off anything before it started, Rinoa pursed her lips. "That is an ORDER, Mr. SeeD."

That did it. "An ORDER? That's the first serious thing you've done since we've arrived." Squall started, his clear blue eyes flashing. "You go in with the air that you're going to have 'serious negotiations' with the president of Galbadia, the main person your so-called resistance faction have been 'hunting' down for Hyne knows how long... and what do you do? You fall on the ground and forget just what you were doing in the first place. Oh, and on top of that, you can't even make a sure decision without our input, right? If that was the case, then we could've hired OURSELVES to think up better plans... and have them well thought out before jumping into them."

Sharon raised her hands to the sky as if she were in church. "Oh, PREACH IT, my brother!" Gina almost lost it right there, but for once was able to cut off her laughter and nudged Sharon reproachfully in the side to stop adding gasoline to the fire. Zell decided then to step forward and place a hand on Squall's shoulder as a means to calm him down, and Squall took a deep breath and closed his eyes, trying to clear his mind.

Rinoa trained her head to the ground, examining the lines in the blue grating until they finally blurred together. She was silent for quite awhile after Squall's last outburst, and even though she had literally asked for it, Gina began to feel sorry for the poor girl.

A few more painfully strained moments passed, and Selphie started to twitch nervously, and took a couple of steps to try and comfort the girl in blue. But before she got halfway there, Rinoa spoke.

"You know... maybe this was all a big mistake." She said shakingly, her dark hair serving as a veil to cover her downcast face. "I thought everything would work out fine once SeeD came to help us... but if all you're going to do is demean our motives and our determination, then I can do without it. I'm tired of being talked down to like I don't know what I'm doing... just like my father." Clenching her teeth together, she lifted her head and glared at Squall. "THIS IS NOT A GAME! I'm serious... we're serious... but I guess I can't expect a group of people that are hired to do nothing more than to mindlessly follow orders to understand that."

Sharon lifted an eyebrow and turned to Squall with a look that clearly said "Oh, no home-girl just didn't", despite another furious prodding of elbows Gina was giving her. But, before anything else could possibly get started, static from the big screen TV they were all standing in front of sounded, and eventually cleared up to reveal a pleased announcer standing at a mahogany podium. Everyone seemed to temporarily forget their quarrels, and trained their attention to the broadcast.

"T-testing... 1...2...3... O-Oh! People of the world! Can you see me! Can you hear me! Oh, this is incredible!" The announcer gushed, hardly able to contain his excitement.

As the broadcast continued, Squall let his mind drift to the conflict he had just endured with Rinoa. _Was I too harsh?_ He glanced over at her figure, who was tuned into every word that was being said over the air. _I guess I should apologize... but for what? Nothing will be changed. We'll all still be stuck in this contract until Timber somehow gains its long-sought independence. _Squall turned his thoughtful gaze to the screen in front of him, but not really paying attention to what was going on. _I understand how frustrated you must be, Rinoa... but we can't do anything unless you know exactly what you want done so it all flows accordingly. SeeDs aren't being trained to carry out spur-of-the-moment, half thought plans._

"... at this time, let me introduce the ambassador who will be my representative for the conference." The real President Deling droned. Squall blinked, and began to wish that he had been playing closer attention to the broadcast so he knew what was going on.

"The ambassador is the Sorceress..." Before the president of Galbadia could finish, the camera jerked suddenly and a crashing sound was heard. The president's eyes were trained on something behind the camera, and the flying body of a Galbadian soldier drove him from the podium suddenly. When he moved, Seifer Almasy grabbed him swiftly and put the sharp blade of his Hyperion dangerously close to his neck. Another soldier moved to apprehend him, but was cut off by the cracking of a whip through the air in front of him. Quistis Trepe appeared onscreen shortly afterwards, holding her weapon in front of her.

"Say wha?" Selphie gaped. "What's going on! Why are Instructor Trepe and Seifer crashing the broadcast!?"

"Get back!" The Garden instructor warned, and as a defiant soldier rushed towards Seifer, he received a painful lash across his chest, driving him backwards. Curling her whip in one hand, she spoke again. "For the last time, STAY BACK! You're just going to provoke him!"

Gina nearly cried for the soldiers who felt Quistis' wrath. _How can anybody STILL want to go against a chick with a whip who knows how to use it dangerously!_

Zell looked to Squall expectantly. "What are we gonna do?"

"... Nothing. Our job is to assist the..." Squall cut himself off when Sharon and Gina walked past him and started jogging up the stairs towards the TV station. As if feeling his gaze on them, they both turned to look at him. "Would you rather wait until she says it?" Gina addressed his unvoiced protest, and as if on cue, Quistis turned to the camera.

"Timber Team, are you watching? Get over here right now! You HAVE permission! I need your help!" Squall looked away from the TV to the previous girls, who were giving him an "I told you so" look, before turning to finish running up the stairs. Zell and Selphie nodded at each other, and followed them. Squall shook his head, probably knowing that Selphie and Zell attributed this preempt to Gina's "psychic" powers, and looked over to see Rinoa giving him a small smile, offering a truce regarding their argument.

"Well... what are we waiting for? Let's go help them!" Rinoa broadened her smile so it effectively lit up her eyes, and grabbed Squall's arm much like the day she saw him at the SeeD party, dragging him up the stairs.

By the time they had finally arrived in the studio of the TV station, everyone was staring pointedly at Zell, who was blushing redder by the second.

"You just missed it." Sharon smirked. "Zell put that big mouth of his to use and had it broadcast all over that we're from Garden."

Squall paled a few shades at that news, and trained his eyes to the ceiling. _Hyne, can anything else make this day any more haywire than it's already been?_

"... Seifer?" Rinoa said tentatively, taking a step forward, her eyes shining with hope, but at the same time, confusion. "What... what are you doing?"

For the first time, Gina noticed that the hardness of Seifer's emerald eyes was slowly fading away when he caught sight of just who was addressing him. It left him with an expression that seemed so out of place for being who he was, and she began to inwardly wonder just how much Seifer cared for Rinoa.

"I see... so you're all from Garden." President Deling choked out, bringing everyone back to the situation at hand. "Should anything happen to me, the entire Galbadian military will undoubtedly crush Garden. You can release me now."

Just that quickly, the familiar fire returned to Seifer's eyes, as if he just remembered what he was doing. "Nice going, chicken-wuss! You and your stupid big mouth!" He spat out, backing up towards a doorway, tightening his grip on the president. "Take care of this mess, Instructor and Mr. Leader!"

As he disappeared into the back room, Rinoa impulsively followed him, causing the rest of the group to follow as well.

"Stay away from me!" Seifer's voice rang out, directed towards a figure donning a long, violet gown and a peculiar-looking red mask that was completely hiding her facial features. The whole room was making him dizzy, and it seemed that colors were blurring into others, and the only things that were remaining stationary were himself and the woman in front of him.

"Such a confused little boy..." the mysterious figure purred, almost as if singing a lullaby. Rinoa gasped, and tried to run towards Seifer, but she ran hard into an invisible barrier and was repelled almost immediately. Everyone crowded into the doorway then, watching the scene unfold.

"I am NOT a boy!" Seifer growled.

"You don't want to be a boy anymore?" The woman continued to musically talk her way into the depths of his mind. Seifer felt his grip on the president loosen, and the captive took that opportunity to wrestle free and escape through some partly concealed stairs off to the side.

"What are you doing, Seifer!" Quistis called out, not understanding much of what was going on between the two figures. But Seifer's eyes seemed glazed over, and her voice faded away like an echo. The woman held a black-gloved hand out to him with the words, "Come with me to a place of no return. Bid farewell to your childhood." Seifer finally turned his attention to the doorway, as if just now acknowledging the presence of others in the room with him. Giving a smirk and a wave, he and the sorceress disappeared in a flash of light.

"... and, end scene." Sharon murmured to herself as the light died down, and the room seemed to return to normal. Quistis bent down to help the girl that was still on the ground in shock, her eyes darting around the room as if she couldn't really grasp what had just happened. Not that Sharon could blame her; if she didn't know beforehand, then it would've scared the shit out of her, too.

Squall turned away from the room slowly, and found himself looking straight at Gina. Her demeanor seemed unchanged even from all of what had gone on around her, and her eyes held a wisdom that he couldn't place.

"I think..." Gina began, getting everyone's attention. "... that we should leave."

"Staying in Timber any longer than necessary will only give us more problems than what we already have." Sharon added in. "Not even all of us combined could take on the army that's probably headed for this building right now."

Selphie frowned. "But... just where are we supposed to go? They've stopped the trains going back to Balamb."

"Garden Code, Article 8, line 7." Was Quistis' response, looking pointedly at Squall. He paused for a moment, and one could almost see him mentally flip through the humongous book of Garden Rules and Regulations. "Head for the nearest Garden."

The instructor nodded. "From here, that would be Galbadia Garden." She thought she heard Sharon swear under her breath for a moment, but dismissed it. "I've been there several times, so we should be okay. There should be another train leaving shortly for the East Academy... if we all hurry, we can catch it and be gone before anyone notices."

Together, everyone moved out of the TV station, and followed Rinoa's lead through the back streets of Timber until they came to the over-passing bridge that lead down to the other boarding platform. There, a cloaked figure made a hissing sound, and upon pulling back the hood, they recognized it to be Zone.

"Zone!" Rinoa smiled gratefully, and he waved his hand for them all to come closer. "You need tickets for that train that's going to the East Academy, right?" He whispered, then produced a handful of tickets from beneath the folds of the cloak. "They're all sold out now, so I did the honors of snagging the last batch, knowing you all would probably need to get out of here fast." He handed one ticket to Rinoa, and the rest of them to Squall. "Don't worry about me; I'll be fine here."

Squall fanned out the tickets in his hand, and did a quick count. "Wait... we need one more ticket."

Zone blinked, then slapped the palm of his hand to his head. "Crap! You mean I miscounted?" He felt another one of the familiar stomach pains stab at him again. Everyone looked at each other, not knowing what to do. If all of them couldn't flee the town, then the tickets they already had were pretty much useless.

Rinoa looked down at the ticket in her hand, and seemed to be weighing her choices. Getting a determined look into her eyes, she stuck out her hand to Squall. "Here. Take it."

Both Gina and Sharon were immediately floored. "Y-You can't do that!" Sharon blurted out. _If she doesn't go, it could offset everything in the game! I can't let that happen! What if... what if... _The many implications were running through her head, and she wasn't sure if they were going to stop.

"I'm honored that you want me to go with you, but I'm sure." Rinoa replied. "I'm not a SeeD... and somehow this has turned into something that only you all have to deal with. Besides..." She turned her head towards Zone. "My place is with them. Not only that, but they have my dog." She flashed them a smile. "Squall, when things have died down regarding Timber and SeeD, then we'll pick up where we left off. That is my last order."

Gina could barely will her chin to stop scraping the ground, and Zell had to drag her off towards the platform just to catch the last call for passengers.


	29. Chapter 29

**A/N:** OKAY! Sorry you guys for not updating like clockwork. After arriving in Shanghai, I had to have a couple of weeks just to get used to the culture shock and get used to the fact that I am one of a few that speak English... not to mention there is no English anywhere here... so. Yeah. Imagine how someone like me gets around with purple hair (yes, I have purple and blue hair right now) and can't speak a lick of Chinese. But I could go on forever about my adventures in Shanghai. I'll just finally be glad that I can update for now. LOL

* * *

Squall quickly swiped the ticket stub under the sensor so as to prevent Selphie from bowling him over to get to the front. After watching her bubbly figure skip happily to the window, he turned to see Zell being abnormally silent in one corner of the train, sitting with his knees drawn up to his chin. _He must be feeling pretty guilty for what he said in the TV Station. _Leaning against one side of the cabin, he also realized that Sharon and Gina seemed to be in some state of shock. _I wonder if it has anything to do with leaving the Forest Owls in Timber... _Squall frowned thoughtfully. _That makes no sense. How can they be shocked from that, and not from all the other crazy things that's been happening lately? Maybe they're just concerned for Rinoa's safety... but for some reason, I doubt my own theory._

Kneeling down besides the normally happy go lucky blonde, Gina placed a hand on his shoulder and gave a reassuring smile. "Zell... I'm sure everything will be fine... try not to beat yourself up too much, okay?"

Zell bit his lower lip and averted his eyes to the side. "But... if anything happens to Garden... it'll be my fault. Me and my big mouth..." He trailed off, reliving Seifer's words. Gina lowered her eyes and tried to think of some way to cheer him up; it was so out of his character to be upset, at least for long.

"There's nothing more we can do but wait things out." Quistis spoke up. "The President got away unharmed, so maybe he won't think to retaliate now."

Everyone nodded, but none of them really were sure of what would happen. Breaking the silence, Squall addressed Quistis. "Instructor... what was Seifer doing in Timber in the first place?"

"He learned of your mission and blew a gasket, saying how dumb Headmaster Cid was for sending a group of second-rate SeeDs and two rookies to possibly take on the entire Galbadian army." She suppressed a chuckle. "The way he was raving, I would've never thought he was serious. Until he broke out of the disciplinary room, that is." Quistis trained her gaze on Sharon, who was pacing back and forth with a perturbed look on her face. "Is anything the matter, Sharon?"

The restless girl's head snapped up when Quistis said her name, then gave a half-grin. "Um... well... I guess I just... can't understand why Rinoa gave up her ticket so easily." She replied truthfully. "I mean... she was supposed... she should have escaped Timber..."

"And leave the rest of her resistance faction behind?" Quistis inquired. "It wouldn't make much sense to do that. If anything, she made a very noble decision in spite of the current danger."

Sharon couldn't really argue with that. But she also couldn't just up and say "Oh yeah, well ya know, her doing that just upset the whole damn flow of things, because she was supposed to get into all sorts of shit and have Squall bail her out, and eventually she becomes a sorceress, and then after that Squall realizes he loves her, and after defeating Ultimecia everyone has a party and lives happily ever after." She turned to face Gina, who returned her gaze with a defeated shrug, then went back to trying to get Zell out of his funk. _Well, so much for staying true to the game._

The train announcer notified the group that they had arrived at East Academy Station. Disembarking, Quistis led the group off of the platform and they began walking towards the forest that would lead them to Galbadia Garden.

Sharon gave a big sigh. "Okay, is it just me, but is this just totally stupid? We have to walk from a station in the middle of fucking NOWHERE, through a forest, and then walk some more to get to this Garden. Can't there be a convenient way to get there, or is everybody at Galbadia a bunch of recluses that don't want to be bothered with anybody else?"

Selphie giggled. "Well, at least it's closer to society than Trabia Garden. It isn't surrounded by tons and tons of huge, snowy mountains."

As they reached the entrance to the forest, Zell's paranoia got a hold of him and he latched onto Squall's arm, causing Squall to look at him as if he had just lost his mind. "Just in case the President DID decide to send an army to Garden, they wouldn't lose, would they?" He wailed desperately, looking at Squall in hopes of a favorable response.

"Zell, we don't KNOW anything for sure, so it's no use whining about..." Squall cut himself off when a familiar dizzy spell overcame him. _Oh, no... not again! _He pitched forward as he lost consciousness, and Quistis and Selphie collapsed to the ground shortly afterwards.

Sharon lifted an eyebrow with a smirk. "I swear, they pass out faster than that night Seifer drank all that 151." All that earned her was an elbow to the ribs from Gina, and Zell sat on the ground with a pout.

"Great timing to go to the 'dream world'." He muttered, leaning his head against a bark of a tall tree. Gina looked at him for a moment, then moved to sit next to him, being careful not to get her white outfit dirty.

"Hey... Balamb Garden will not be invaded by the Galbadian Army." Gina said reassuringly. "I'm sure of it. I'm psychic, remember?" Zell turned his blue eyes on her, and after a moment, he grinned like his old self. Gina, happy that she was finally able to make him feel better, returned the smile, and Sharon stood off to the side, shaking her head. _Isn't that cute. I would say something right about now, but all they'd do is stare at me and blush. Not to mention Gina would be quick to whine to me about embarrassing her._ Instead, she opted for keeping watch for any monsters until the rest of the group finally stirred back to life, rubbing their foreheads and getting their bearings straight.

"Sir Laguna's in BIG TROUBLE! I hope he'll be okay!" Selphie blurted out to no one in particular.

"This happened to you before?" Quistis asked, confused. "What exactly is this?"

Squall pursed his lips and shook his head, not really wanting to get into what they were frequently experiencing. _It seems like this dream has a tendency to show up whenever neither of us have time to sit down and contemplate what it means. _"We'll just be wasting time if we try to figure it out. Let's keep going."

Having no choice but to agree with their leader, everyone kept trekking through the forest, stopping a few times to fend off a few monsters before finally emerging on the other side. When they reached the front gate of Galbadia Garden, Quistis told the rest of the group to wait in the 2nd floor reception room while she did all the talking with the Headmaster, since she'd apparently been there several times before.

Sharon plopped down on one of the couches and propped her feet up on the table in front of it. "I don't know about you guys, but this Garden just doesn't seem as homey as Balamb."

Squall shrugged. "... I like it. It's a lot quieter."

_Probably because Martine would be quick to admonish anyone who speaks when they're otherwise not given permission,_ Gina thought sourly. Sure, the game probably didn't give much background on what kind of headmaster Martine was, but she always got the gist that he was somewhat of a stern, drill sergeant kind of man, one that didn't take any excuses. She looked out of the large picture window on one side of the reception room, admiring the view of the scenery. _I like Headmaster Cid a whole lot better... he's more of a father figure than a Headmaster, but I think because he's like that, Balamb is as good as it is._

A few more moments passed, and Quistis returned, closing the door behind her.

"How'd it go?" Squall asked.

"They understand our situation." She looked at Zell. "Balamb Garden is safe, just as I had thought. The attack on the president in Timber was classified as an independent action, as so notified to the Garden directly from the Galbadian government. Unfortunately... for Seifer..."

Zell leaned forward. "What... he took the blame?"

"His trial is over... the sentence of execution was determined..." Quistis informed them all slowly, taking a seat. A few seconds of silence passed as the news sunk in. "... executed?" Zell repeated, looking like someone just dropped a ton of bricks on his stomach. "I know I didn't really like the guy... but..." He let his voice trail off.

Selphie forlornly looked down at the lines in her jumper, and the instructor let out a sigh. "Until that stunt he pulled back in Timber, though reckless... I never would've thought that he would do something halfway heroic for someone other than himself. I never really was able to judge him correctly, it seems."

Sharon opened her mouth to say something, then thought against it. She and Gina knew that Seifer wasn't really dead, and it wouldn't feel right to add any 'last words' for someone who was very much alive, no matter how it would benefit their role of feigned ignorance. _Shit, the whole storyline's gone to hell anyway... I wouldn't be surprised if the damn space-time continuum fell down around our ankles. _She scratched her head and almost let out a snort at how over-dramatic she was being. _Girl, take a deep breath and calm down, _Sharon told herself. _So, the bitch isn't here. That isn't much of a bad thing, is it really? Maybe now things will run a lot faster and smoother... hey, maybe after this we can skip right to kicking the Sorceress in the ass and getting this whole damn game over with!_

While Sharon was lost in her thoughts, Squall broke out of his abruptly. "I won't have it..." he started, causing everyone to look at him quizzically. "I'm not having anyone talk about me in the past tense!" Raising his voice to a shout, he turned and rushed out of the reception room, the door swinging shut behind him.

Zell stood up to go after him, but Quistis stopped him by raising her arm to block his path. She may have had trouble reading Seifer, but she had spent enough time around Squall to know that he would want to be alone for awhile. Selphie blinked at the door for a few moments, then shrugged and continued fidgeting with the hem of her dress.

"Well... looks like someone's PMSing today." Sharon joked, and Gina shot her a reprimanding look. "What?" She replied defensively, before Gina had a chance to elbow her in the side again. "Just trying to lighten the mood..."

After Quistis decided that they had given Squall enough time to cool down, they all left the reception room and gathered near the front gate, where Squall was waiting, his arms crossed and staring somewhat off into the distance. Nobody questioned his outburst from earlier, and it seemed to suit Squall just fine. He didn't feel like justifying his actions, since that would mean sharing his thoughts with everyone else... and he wasn't one to confide in anyone but himself. Gina knew this, especially since she didn't like it when people tried to prod into her own complex mind, but at the same time she wanted to say something to let Squall know that he wasn't alone. _Psht... if you bother him now, then all the ground you thought you had gained with him back at GVSU will be considered lost._

Thankfully, the group didn't have to wait long before a car pulled up and Headmaster Martine stepped out. Wearing a royal blue suit with elaborate gold trim that set off the sandy coloring of his slightly receding hairline, his heels made clicks across the cemented ground as he made his way towards their group. Upon seeing him, Gina began to feel her paranoia stomach butterflies flutter, and she cleared her throat and checked for wrinkles in her pants. _God, this man makes me ten times as more nervous than Quistis and her deadly whip, _she thought, repressing the urge to make sure every strand of hair was neatly kept in her ponytail.

As everyone stood with their backs straight and unanimously saluted the present Headmaster, Martine took his time, slowly pacing in front of the lined up SeeDs in front of him. His gaze settled on every individual, making the struggle difficult for Gina to not squirm or start her nervous habit of twitching or tapping her fingers on her leg.

"At ease." Headmaster Martine said after what seemed like an eternity, and Sharon let out an inaudible breath. _Thank fucking god. I think he was seriously waiting for beads of sweat to start popping out of our heads. _As he went over the premise of the situation regarding the recently allied sorceress and the president of Galbadia, Sharon let herself zone out. _God, my feet are killing me. I haven't really had time to sit down or do much resting since we left on that mission this morning... it feels like I've been awake for three days, already. No matter how much training Gina and I have endured, I don't think I'll ever get used to a life like this. _She glanced casually at Squall as he took a manila folder from Headmaster Martine. _Finally, he got the orders. Now we can get our asses to Deling and..._ Sharon stopped blinking and went completely rigid when her brain came to a sudden realization, one that she should've seen coming long before.

Gina sensed her best friend's tension, but did nothing more than to shoot small, concerned glances over at her, afraid to say anything until Martine left.

Squall closed the folder and looked up at the headmaster. "The orders say by means of a sniper. We have no one with that skill."

When their leader voiced that line, Gina had to bite the inside of her lip to keep from laughing, since she finally understood the reason for Sharon's tension. She looked over to see Sharon training her eyes to the sky, as if begging the gods to let it NOT be who she thought it was.

"Don't worry about it. From what I hear, you should already be well acquainted with our elite sharpshooter from a previous mission." Martine turned his head to the side. "Kinneas! Irvine Kinneas!"

* * *

**Queen Adreena:** I didn't forget about you guys! I did however, get your review when I was in China. I was bitchy because I couldn't figure out how to update for the life of me because this computer is all in Chinese. Now that I've figured out the basics here at this internet lab, I can update! yay! Next week I won't though; I'm going to be in Beijing. But I will the next week!

**Mudora:** Well, yes, I do have lots of things in mind. Some won't be apparent until the very end and I try to lead people on. LOL

**Dacera:** Thanks for reviewing! It's nice to see new people reviewing every now and then. LOL I like Quistis, but yeah ... later on I hope to develop her character better.

**Angel Of Apocolypse:** Eh, who cares about logging in all of the time? hehe. I would be lazy, but all my stories are on my favorites list so... yeah. LOL he's a GIRL! Seifer would SO kill both of us. He can't handle being teased. XD


	30. Chapter 30

Irvine Kinneas pulled himself up from the grass by his elbows when he heard his name being called, and shouldered his rifle as he made his way over. He kept his head down as he passed by Headmaster Martine, his black cowboy hat effectively shading his eyes. Even though he'd been at Galbadia Garden for as long as he could remember, it didn't make him feel any more comfortable as the days went by. Martine was the main rub; he knew that the only reason the headmaster was tolerating him was because of his exceptional talents at being a sharpshooter. Ever since Martine had fired Irvine's favorite professor and mentor back when he was just in his early teens, both headmaster and the then cadet had been at odds ever since.

Which is why Irvine was more than happy to be put on the current mission. _Anything to get out of this hellhole._ The only other mission he'd been on was the one concerning the portal, and until then he hadn't truly known what it was like to be free, not having to worry about Martine or anybody else breathing down his neck every five seconds. At first, he had been worried that the other SeeDs that had been assigned to the same mission would give him crap, since he was coming from a rival Garden. But, needless to say, it had all turned out all right, and when Irvine had heard that he would once again be working with some of the same people, he had to keep himself from verbally expressing his happiness. He wouldn't doubt that Martine would pull him off the mission once he found out that it was something that actually made his life more bearable.

"Irvine Kinneas will be your sharpshooter." Headmaster Martine announced to the group of SeeDs in front of him. "Leave whenever you are ready." With that, he turned with his hands clasped behind his back and began walking towards the entrance to his Garden.

_You're forgetting something,_ Irvine thought bitterly. As if on cue, Martine turned his head back towards them. "Failure is not an option." He blatantly said, the force of the statement directed towards the Galbadian cowboy. Irvine said nothing, but glared at him out of the corner of his eyes until he had finally resumed his pace back towards the front gate. _How many times have I heard that from him... guess I lost count. _Finally being able to take an unrestrained breath, he looked up and Squall a grin. _Looks like he and Zell haven't changed any... and it looks like they brought along some hotties. _He took his time studying Quistis and Selphie, and moved his gaze to the final pair standing not much, but noticeably apart from the rest. As soon as he looked at the girl in the white hoodie, his eyes widened, and a wave of dejavu washed over him. _No way... if that's who I think it is... then the other girl must be..._

Squall watched Irvine gape at his group for a moment, then his brain clicked. _Crap... I've been with Sharon and Gina for so long, I managed to completely forget that they aren't originally from here!_ Thinking fast, he turned to everyone. "Excuse me, but I need to discuss something with Mr. Kinneas." He pulled Irvine away from the group until he figured they were out of earshot.

"Are those... are those two...?" Irvine tried to form a sentence.

"Yes, it's them. They found the portal shortly after we returned, but before they could get back to their world, it vanished." Squall said quickly.

The cowboy's mouth dropped open once again. "Seriously! Is it going to reappear? Do you know?"

Squall shook his head. "No, we don't. They've been trained as SeeDs under our Garden, and nobody except you, me and Zell know their true origins. Let's keep it that way."

Gina and Zell exchanged knowing glances at Squall and Irvine's immediate need for discussion. Gina then turned to look at her best friend, who was visibly pissed off that the gods didn't answer her prayers. _I know she didn't think that she'd be able to avoid THIS, of all things..._

Squall returned to the group with Irvine in tow, both of them successfully acting as if whatever they had talked about wasn't really of any importance. Irvine, however, walked right in front of Sharon and flashed one of his most disarming grins. "I suppose this is fate?"

_He's starting with me already! Oh, that fucking asstaco..._ She glared at him over the edges of the thin frames of her glasses. "I think not."

Quistis raised an eyebrow at the exchange between the two. "You know him?" She asked.

"We've been previously well acquainted." Sharon answered icily, letting her glare rest on Irvine a few agonizing moments longer before turning to her leader. "Squall, our mission details please, so we can get the hell out of here."

Zell and Gina tried to stop their chuckles as Squall gave her a look and sighed heavily. _Hyne, I'm going to have to put up with their bickering again... _"Our next mission... It's a direct order from both Balamb and Galbadia Garden. We're to assassinate the sorceress by shooting her from afar. As Kinneas is our sharpshooter, we are to support him to the fullest. Should the sniper fail, we are to attack head on."

"I guess I didn't mention before, but I never miss my target." Irvine said, suffering a roll of the eyes and a muttered "oh, my god" from Sharon.

"Eliminate the sorceress. That's my order. We're going to head up to the capital of Galbadia, Deling City. There, we'll meet up with General Caraway to go over the details for the plan. Let's get going."

Sharon walked off huffily as soon as Squall had finished talking, and Gina and Zell cracked up. _Man, I know I shouldn't be laughing at Sharii-chan, but I forgot how entertaining their fights were!_ Selphie blinked in confusion at it all, then smiled brightly and skipped off after Squall, with Irvine following her. Quistis was the last one, and wondered if everyone had gone crazy or there was just a lot of stuff she was missing.

Squall automatically swiped the ticket upon boarding the train before Selphie even had to say or do anything. "Hee! You caught on!" She went to take her usual position at the window near the front of the train, and after a moment's thought, Irvine followed. Quistis stood in the center of the train and looked at Squall, who had assumed his normal position leaning against one wall, his arms folded and his head slightly facing the ground. She then looked over at Gina and Zell, who were huddled together and trying to regain their composure. Finally, she rested her gaze on Sharon, who was looking like she was going to explode.

"... okay... what..." Quistis started, and was interrupted by another fit of laughter from the two in the corner. She gave a pointed look at them with the words, "Must I get the whip?"

Gina's eyes widened in horror at the mention of the whip in junction to herself, and shut up right away, nudging Zell to do the same. When the tittering finally stopped, Quistis turned her attention back to Sharon. "Why..."

"HE ALWAYS STARTS IT!" Sharon blurted out, causing the instructor and even Squall to jump. "Every... fucking... time. He will not leave me alone. I prayed to Hyne, but evidently my PRAYER WASN'T HEARD because HE'S STILL HERE and continues to HAPPILY make my life a LIVING. HELL."

Quistis blinked at her incredulously for a moment, and Squall spoke up. "They... don't get along, instructor. However, I believe the aggression is only one-sided."

"Yeah. It's called 'sexual tension'." Zell piped in, and Gina let out a squeal and prepared to step in front of him just in case Sharon decided to murder him for that.

Before she even had a chance to utter a threat to the blonde, the sliding door separating the cars opened, and Irvine reappeared in the cabin. "Did I miss anything?" Sharon answered by storming past him and going to the train car he just left, barely pausing long enough to allow the door to open.

_Calm down... calm down, damnit! _Sharon screamed at herself, rubbing her temples. She'd gotten used to him not being around, so she had to rebuild her defenses. _Don't let him get to you. He's winning, because you're rusty. Remember the things you did that showed him up. _Realizing that she wasn't the only person standing in the hallway, she noticed Selphie staring out of the window, her cheeks slightly pink. _Wtf is up with her? Oh yeah, she's easily taken in by Irvine's so-called charm._

A light bulb suddenly went off above her head. _Oh... I can use this to my advantage... _A sly smile spread across Sharon's face. _If I can just hurry up and get Irvine and Selphie hooked up, then maybe he'll be too preoccupied with her to bother with me! YES! Sharon, you genius! Alright... time to set this baby into action._

Walking up next to Selphie, she gave her a slight nudge and a grin. "So... what do you think of Mr. Kinneas?"

Feeling the blush return to her cheeks, she mustered a tiny smile. "Uh... he's... he seems nice."

"Oh, come on... just nice? I saw the way he was looking at you." Sharon prodded.

"... well... I guess he was cute..." Selphie stuttered.

_Cha-ching._ "Good. Now that we have that all cleared up... when are you two going out?"

Selphie's jade eyes widened. "O-Oh, come on, Sharon! We have a very important mission to concentrate on, not romance!"

"Hmm... okay. Just checking up on ya, girl." Sharon quickly backed off with a little wave, knowing exactly what she doing. _Got her prepped up. Now all I need to do is make sure Irvine's not up in the other room hooching up on Quistis... _She walked through the sliding door, and sure enough, Irvine was just in the middle of pouring his heart out to the instructor about his solitary life. _Oh no you don't, pretty boy._

"Could you KINDLY sit your 'lonely'-ass down?" She announced, making sure he heard her. "Missions are handled easier without our sharpshooter being distracted by everything that has two legs and a vagina."

Zell let out a low whistle, and Irvine met his fellow gunslinger with a grin. "Would you rather just have me be distracted by one person who has two legs and a vagina?"

Sharon just smiled, seemingly unfazed by the wink he added to the end of that sentence. "Maybe." She put in the air mysteriously, and stopped herself from giving a triumphant laugh as Irvine donned a confused look. _Step down, bitch... step on down._

Quistis turned her head to Squall to gauge his reaction to all of this, and he was looking like this kind of thing happened to him every day on the job. "Neither flirting NOR bickering will make our current mission any easier, so let us all try to stay focused." She finally said.

"Flirting and bickering... one in the same for those two." Zell said lowly with a cough to cover it up, but Gina hissed at him to not start anything. The train announced that it would be arriving in Deling shortly, and everyone really started gathering themselves for what they had to do.

_Dude... finally facing the sorceress... without Rinoa..._ Gina mused, feeling the butterflies return to her stomach. _I don't know what to expect, anymore... but I have no choice but to take it as it comes._


	31. Chapter 31

**A/N: **Wow! Call me a total geek, but I heard "Eyes on Me" playing on the radio while I was sitting in the internet lab the other day! I started singing really loud and had a whole bunch of Chinese people stare at me as if I had lost my mind. Which isn't entirely untrue. I'VE BEEN LOST MY MIND! Oh, and I also found the song in karaoke when I went yesterday and totally butchered it. I didn't mean to... but well... yeah. I'm no Faye Wong.

Sorry it took so long for me to update though... I'm running low on kuai and my ATM card has not been shipped to me yet. I'm kind of scared; being broke in China is not what makes me a happy camper, but that's okay - Mom told me to "spend frugally". And for the exception of my obvious addiction to food and the internet, I am doing just that. No more Tai Chi swords for me.

* * *

"There is absolutely NO WAY I'm eating that." Sharon proclaimed, looking over at what Zell was hungrily scarfing down. They were in one of Deling City's many street cafe's, wasting time before they were to carry out their mission.

"Why not? It's good!" Zell responded, shoving French fries in his mouth.

"You are eating. Fried chocobo wings. That. Is just nasty."

Gina stifled a laugh. "Well... you ate chicken back home, right? I don't think it's that much of a difference." Of course, Gina wasn't eating anything either, but she had more of a reason than her best friend did. She never liked fried chicken in the first place.

"No, no. This is different. We did not use chickens as a source of transportation or have them as pets. Well... some people on farms probably thought of chickens as pets, but they're wacko anyway." Sharon explained herself. "Those cute little defenseless chocobos... how can you eat them without remorse?"

"You're sounding like one of those vegetarian extremists." Gina said, patting Sharon on the shoulder. "Pigs, chickens, cows, chocobos... they all have feelings, too, but you didn't care until now."

Sharon breathed a sigh and threw her hands up in the air. "Yeah, but... whatever. I'll never get used to seeing chocobos on a menu."

At that moment, Quistis walked up to their table. "It's almost time for us to return to General Caraway's residence and have our final meeting on the details of our mission. I would give you guys a few more minutes, but Squall's a bit impatient and wants to get what we came here to do over with."

Nodding at the instructor, Zell tossed a couple of gil on the table as a tip and followed them out of the cafe to the brightly lit street, where Squall was waiting. Sharon took a deep breath and smiled at the sight of the city. _Man, this reminds me of downtown Detroit... albeit a little smaller and a lot cleaner. _Just thinking about her hometown sent a slight pang of sadness through her heart, but she tried to shake it off. _C'mon girl, get it together. How many months have passed when you barely stopped to think about going home? _Her thoughts were interrupted as a brightly colored pinwheel took up her field of vision, spinning in the slight breeze.

"Hee! Isn't it cute? Irvine got it for me!" Selphie cheesed. "You were looking a little bit down there, and things like these always cheer me up!"

Sharon blinked for a moment, then smiled. "Thanks. I'm okay, really. I just... really like cities. The commotion that always goes on in them, no matter how late it gets, and the lights of the many restaurants and stores that brighten up the streets and draw in people from all over. Just makes me feel a bit nostalgic."

Gina reached out and gave her friend's hand a reassuring squeeze, and Squall got everyone's attention. "It's time to get this underway. Let's report back to General Caraway." Everyone nodded in agreement and began the trek back to the enormous mansion that belonged to Rinoa's father. _Not like they'll ever know that little tidbit, _Gina thought to herself. It was becoming increasingly abnormal to continue walking those streets knowing that Rinoa wasn't with them, and meeting the General of the Galbadian Army was even more uncomfortable. _God, I can see chunks of the storyline drifting away to sea with every movement we make. _Gina supposed she should be glad that the princess of the Timber Owls wasn't around to possibly annoy the hell out of her and Sharon, but even as much as she didn't like to admit, Rinoa was a very important key to having the game go smoothly. _Not to mention I would have known what to expect around every turn._

Finally reaching the mansion and gathering in his lavishly decorated living room, General Caraway turned from his place at the window to nod at them all. "It's time to form the teams. The sniper and the leader of this operation will form the sniper team. The leader's role in this is vital, because if the plan fails, he must carry out a direct assault against the sorceress." Caraway paced a few steps across the room before continuing. "The plan was devised carefully, because we intend this to be a covert operation. However, our ultimate goal is to eliminate the sorceress, and that must be achieved at all costs, even if our identities are in danger of being discovered. So, who will be leading this operation?"

Everyone wasted no time in looking pointedly at Squall, who had to force back a sigh of exasperation. _Why does it always have to be me? _"I will."

The general nodded in confirmation. "Fine. I leave the rest to you."

Squall turned his attention to the group of SeeDs he was once again in charge of. "Irvine and I will make up the sniper team, and stand by in front of the Presidential Residence until the ceremony is over. The rest of you will stand inside the gateway and wait until 20:00 to pull the switch to lower the gates. Instructor Trepe, I put you in charge of that group." He gave a final gaze to everyone. "Is everything clear?"

Sharon gave him a nonchalant thumbs up, Zell punched a fist in the air, Gina offered a slightly nervous looking smile while Selphie flashed him her best one, Irvine gave him a confident grin, and Quistis responded with a simple nod. They all rested their eyes back on General Caraway as a sign that they were ready to head out.

* * *

"You know... I hate waiting." Sharon muttered, standing inside the tiny room just inside the gateway. Only a few minutes had passed since Caraway and the sniper team left them to their post, and she was already impatient.

Gina nodded in agreement. As nervous as she was getting about carrying through the whole mission, part of her wanted to be out in the open so she could watch the whole parade unfold. _Well, at least this is a whole lot simpler than finding ourselves locked up in General Caraway's mansion and solving some stupid puzzle just to get out._

"I hear ya. I wanna be out there kickin' ass. This whole 'covert operation' thing isn't working for me." Zell frowned, tossing a few practice moves to the air.

"Heey! This place is too small for you to be jumping around kicking like that!" Selphie whined, trying to move away from the hyperactive martial artist.

Quistis sighed and put a hand to her forehead. "Patience is of utmost importance, here. I understand how you all must feel, but we are responsible for making sure this entire mission goes without hitches."

As the group went silent to absorb the meaning of their group leader's words, they all heard a muffled cheer from the massive crowd of people that showed up in Deling to help celebrate the coronation of the sorceress. In her mind's eye, Gina could picture Edea taking her place high above the masses at the podium. _Man, I wish I was out there taking it all in. _Before she had time to continue musing about her position, the door to the gateway was flung open, causing everyone to whip around in surprise.

"Oh, wtf-bomb..." Sharon muttered as she sucked in a breath.

"See, I told you I saw them enter here, sir!" One Galbadian soldier announced to his apparent superior, who was dressed in red.

"I see... those kids that were responsible for all of the ruckus in Timber." The other confirmed, his eyes scanning them all. "Speak! What are you all doing in here!"

Everyone froze like deer caught in headlights. It wasn't that probable to assume that the soldiers would let them remain at their post even after the best bullshitted explanation, and it wasn't like they had time to think about something that elaborate to make them leave them alone, anyway. Gina's hand became clammy as she tightened her grip in her best friend's palm. _Oh, god, what if they kill us? _But they couldn't just let them haul them off to wherever, because then who would pull the switch to lower the gates at 20:00?

When none of them made an attempt to answer, the Galbadian soldier in charge spoke again. "Are you planning another assault on the president? If so, then don't expect to get out of this one alive." He readied his heavy machine gun.

In a flash, Quistis had undone the clasp on her waist to release her whip, and cracked the weapon away from the soldier's hands, then lashed her weapon across the soldier's face, painfully snapping it to one side. Zell sprung into action next, landing a fierce punch to the jaw of the subordinate, causing him to fall heavily to the ground.

"Damn, that was a close one!" Zell said. "If they had uncovered our mission, we would've been doomed!"

Selphie stepped over the bodies of the fallen Galbadian soldiers and peeked outside. "Um, I don't think we're in the clear, everyone. Some of the others heard the commotion and are making their way over!" She turned frightened eyes to the instructor. "What do we do?"

Quistis pursed her lips and tightened her grip on the handle of her whip for comfort. They couldn't just continue beating down hordes of soldiers without really risking the mission. As long as the sniper team was safe, then she didn't intend on counting the whole plan as failed. _Squall...!_ Her eyes widened as the thought of her favorite student being in danger. She couldn't know for sure about his current position, and if the soldiers were already alerted to the gateway team's presence, then none of them could risk regrouping with Squall's group without possibly blowing their cover. _Should I do it? Should I risk endangering everything just to settle my own concerns?_

Everyone sensed their leader's hesitation, but they also heard the clamoring of soldiers' boots on the pavement, nearing their destination.

"Instructor...?" Selphie prodded. "What do we do?"

Squeezing her eyes shut, Quistis forced herself to swallow her emotions. "Take down whomever blocks our path, and run." She said finally. "If we can lose them, then maybe we can return here before 20:00 in time to pull the switch." She gave a half smile to Zell. "Mr. Dincht, I suppose your wish for action has been granted."

The martial artist let out a wolf-like grin, and as the first figure of a soldier appeared in the doorway, he landed a powerful kick to his chest that sent him sprawling backwards into two of his comrades. The group of SeeDs dashed out from the gateway room then, pausing briefly as Selphie flung her nunchaku at two more soldiers, knocking them over to the side. Quistis led the group through the streets of Deling, trying to remain somewhat inconspicuous as they rushed to try and lose the small, but still dangerous pack of Galbadian soldiers still hot on their trail. After weaving through a few crowds of people and making a few more turns, Quistis spotted a lone door embedded into a stone wall. Thinking fast, she turned the handle and whipped it open, ushering the group inside quickly. The soldiers that were still pursuing them received a slammed door right in the face, and the instructor swiftly found the lock and turned it with a satisfying click.

Selphie let out a relieved breath that fluttered the brunette bangs that lined her forehead. "Finally!"

Gina also started to let out a sigh of relief... until she noticed that Sharon was no longer beside her. Her eyes darted around in a panic and she turned in a full circle, making sure she examined every nook and cranny for her best friend, but when her search proved fruitless, she felt like she wanted to throw up. "Where's Sharii-chan?" She squeaked.

Zell blinked, then realized that the hotheaded female wasn't in the room with them. "Shit... she was with us the whole time! Could we have lost her back when we weaved through that crowd?"

Quistis opened her mouth to answer, but then moved to restrain Gina as she reached stubbornly for the door that was the only thing protecting them from a troop of Galbadian soldiers. "Regina, are you crazy? You can't go out there looking for her now, you'll get killed!"

Gina tried to wrestle her way to the door anyway. "I have to find Sharii-chan!" She blurted out, trying to push back the tears that were threatening to overflow.

The instructor had great difficulty holding back the determined young woman in front of her, but she firmly placed both of her hands on her shoulders, forcing her to look the leader straight in the eye. "You're being irrational." She stated sternly. "If you open that door, then you will not only risk your own life, but the lives of the rest of your comrades." Quistis softened the tone in her voice. "Believe me... I know it's hard when you're fighting a battle with yourself... but in times like these, we have to push back our emotions and do what's best for the group."

Gina stared hard at the blurred image of Quistis, but couldn't debate the truth and clarity of her statement. Just because she didn't give a rats ass about her own safety as long as Sharon was okay, didn't mean that she could endanger everyone else's lives in the process. Swallowing the lump in her throat, she nodded in understanding, and the instructor gave her a small smile of reassurance before turning to the concerned faces of Selphie and Zell.

"I don't think that we can take the streets back to the gateway." Zell started after a moment of silence. "We lost them for now, but my guess is that they'll be on their guard until at least the parade is over."

Gina looked around for a possible solution, and found a small metal ladder leading down into the ground. "There is a way back to the room we were in through the sewers." She told them, indicating the ladder. "Let me lead the group once we're down there."

Quistis looked at her in disbelief. "How would you know your way through the intricate workings of Deling City's sewers?"

"She's psychic." Selphie and Zell replied simultaneously, and followed Gina down the steep ladder. Quistis almost laughed despite the situation they were in. _Well, if Gina believes she knows where she's going, I guess I have no choice but to agree for now._

As Gina released her grip on the sides of the ladder when she reached the heart of the sewers, a familiar tune was coming from the streets above, wafting through the vents and intermingled with the sounds of rushing water in the underground canal.

_Fithos lusec wecos vinosec_

"The parade is preparing to start." Quistis stated. "We have to move fast."

Gina nodded, and quickly led the group through the maze of gates and ladders, hoping she remembered the right way from all of her years of playing the game. _Please... let Sharii-chan be okay._

_

* * *

_**Angel of Apocolapse:** Man, when I first heard the insult "asstaco", I had to stop for a moment and think about it. Then I laughed for about 30 minutes straight, LOL. And no, I wouldn't want to be downwind of ANYONE after they ate beans; my friend Nick has an addiction to the Pintos and Cheese from Taco Bell... and yeah. That... was some potent ass shit. Don't be in the same house when he passes wind.  
About Gina or Sharon being the sorceress... well, you'll just have to read to find out. You'll find out sooner than you think. :D

**QueenAdreena:** I hope your cold gets better (although by the time you read this you'll probably already be on the way to recovery)! When I first got to Shanghai and got the full culture shock thing in the face... yeah. It was pretty painful. It took me awhile to adjust, but most of it was just acceptance that things were just the way they were and all I had to do was try my best to survive and make the best of it. Now that I know more Chinese than I knew before (which was...lessee... ZERO), it's a tad easier, people recognize me, and I've made a couple of Chinese friends (that speak English as well as Chinese, thank god). Plus, I get to learn Tai Chi Quan, the kind that shows you how to break someone's face six times before they hit the ground, LOL!

**Aniis:** I'm trying as hard as I can! I'll be in a different province of China next week so... I'll be back as soon as possible to update some more. I think I'm doing pretty good for being in a different country while updating, hehe.


	32. Chapter 32

Squall stood at his post in the crowd next to Irvine, his mind still trying to figure out the insanity that was Sorceress Edea's speech. He had seen, just like he was certain everyone else that was gathered there that night had, her kill the very president she had supposedly allied herself with. _And these people still cheer as if nothing just happened? What in the hell is going on here?_

The cowboy turned to look at Squall. "I'm beginning to wonder if this sorceress put this entire city under a spell or something, because this is just plain crazy."

Squall silently agreed, but his attention was distracted by the movement of the main float, flanked by tons of exotically dressed dancers that were moving their bodies akin to ancient tribal dances. His gaze moved back to the sorceress, who was sitting in a lavish throne in the center of the equally extravagant parade vehicle. _Why does her face seem vaguely familiar to me? It's like something's itching at the back of my mind... something important I should know... but I can't place it or explain it. _When he began to look away, something... or someone... else caught his eye.

_Seifer!_ The usually stoic man gaped as his vision indeed confirmed his suspicions, and a man he once believed was dead was standing quite proudly on the right hand side of the sorceress. _That has to be him... I'd recognize that cocky smirk and long trench coat anywhere._

"Is that who I think it is?" Irvine questioned. "What in the hell..."

Squall tore his eyes away from the moving float with great difficulty. _None of this makes any sense... but I can't stop to wonder how or why... we have a mission to complete. _"The float is moving... we should make our way to the clock area to prepare for the sniping now." Was his response, and he led the cowboy inconspicuously through the crowds until they came to the back of the Presidential Palace. A truck that was filled with tons of wooden crates was parked there, and served as an excellent stepping stool to get to the roof.

The leader started to climb the first crate, until he thought he heard someone following them, and held out an arm for Irvine to stop. Listening closely, Squall moved quietly around the other side of the truck, and as soon as he saw movement, reached out and grabbed the arm of whomever it was and yanked them out in the open.

"OW, WHAT THE FUCK!" Sharon yelped, and she staggered backwards, rubbing her arm where Squall had pulled just seconds ago. "Is this how you treat a fellow SeeD?"

Squall slapped his forehead in disbelief. "Sharon... what are you doing here? Why did you leave your post?"

"I guess she just couldn't stay away from me for long." Irvine grinned flirtatiously, causing her to give him a good view of her middle finger.

"Whatever, bitchface." She sneered, then turned her attention back to Squall. "It wasn't by choice, believe me. We were all in the gateway waiting, but a couple of Galbadian soldiers spotted us from Timber and we were forced to flee just in case they found out what our mission was."

Squall sucked in a breath. "Where is everyone else? Are they with you?"

"No... I think they're safe... they'd better be." Sharon tried to assure herself. "I broke off from them while we were trying to lose those Galbadian assmonkeys so I could try and find you. I know, it was risky, but I think you deserve to know what's going on just in case those gates don't lower when they're supposed to."

Irvine sat on one of the crates. "Well, now what do we do?"

The leader paused for a moment. "... the only thing we can do. Go to the designated position and wait in hopes that they'll get back to the gateway by 20:00. Let's move out."

The newly formed sniper unit ascended the crates to the roof carefully, and jumped over the rail to the podium. Sharon gasped at the still steaming body of the real President Deling when they passed by.

"Hot shit... I can't say that he didn't get what he deserved, but that's still kinda disturbing." She said, feeling sorry for the murdered president.

"Whatever." Squall shrugged off, and ignored the roll of the eyes he got from Sharon as he worked on prying up the hatch in the sorceress' room. As they all dropped through the tiny opening, they found themselves in a darkened dome of what was to be the carousel clock at 20:00. Noticing that there was a sniper rifle at his feet, Squall bent down to pick it up, and handed it to the cowboy.

"Irvine Kinneas... it's in your hands now."

With those words, Irvine's face went completely somber as he reached out and grasped the rifle in one hand. Wordlessly, he moved away from Squall and Sharon to take a seat where he was to make the shot when the time came. The leader of the sniper team raised an eyebrow at his sudden quietness, but then just brushed it off as Irvine prepping himself up. _Loneliness of the sharpshooter... I guess he has a point. _Hearing a faint titter, he glanced over at Sharon and wondered just what in the hell she was laughing at now.

Coughing a little bit, Sharon looked at Squall. "Maybe you should go check on Irvine. I don't think he's deep in concentration."

Squall looked at her weirdly for a moment, then decided to move over to where Irvine was sitting, his head facing the ground. At first, he almost dismissed his concern in the first place, until he noticed that the hand that was clutching the sniper rifle had gone completely white, and Irvine's breathing patterns seemed irregular. _The hell... is he freakin' out!_ "Don't tell me you're getting the jitters..."

There was a slight moment of silence before Irvine half lifted his head, just enough so Squall could see the fear in his usually over-confident blue eyes.

"I... I can't do it."

Sharon tried very hard to clamp her hands over her mouth to prevent the hysterical laughter that threatened to emit from her. _Oh... this is classic. _She stayed hidden behind one of the large pillars as she listened to Squall try to plead and reason with the choked up gunman. _I shouldn't be over there right now... even though this would be the PERFECT opportunity to take a stab at him. _Sharon remembered when she had gotten to this part in the game, and had literally yelled at the TV screen when Irvine pulled this stunt. She couldn't understand how someone who had come off as being so cocky at "never missing his target" could let fear overtake him at the most crucial part in the mission.

_Well, I guess I can take a guess as to whose fault this is, _Sharon mused, her thoughts traveling back to the stern Headmaster of Galbadia Garden. Even though she had been pissed that she would have to put up with Irvine once again, her social antenna distinctively caught the silent exchange between Irvine and Martine. _I bet that man fucked up his psyche somehow that caused him to have this reaction whenever put under pressure. _She immediately forgot her amusement with the whole situation, and felt a flare of anger rise inside her. _I hate people who fuck up others psychologically... probably more than I hate that damn cowboy over there.I guess I can sympathize._

Suddenly, the lights came on inside the place, and the clock distinctively read 20:00 as the dome that surrounded the clock opened. A miniature carousel started twirling around the clock as the platform rose, giving them a perfect overview of the city. Sharon remembered the gateway team and scrambled over to the edge to see the float with the sorceress pass beneath it. _Please..._ she crossed her fingers.

She nearly jumped for joy when she saw the wrought iron gates slam down to the ground in time, trapping the float between the gateway. The sorceress stood up and looked around at her makeshift prison, scanning the crowd for the person who could have done it. _YES! That means Gina's okay... Oh my god, I'm so glad._

"Irvine Kinneas!" Squall shouted. "Just shoot already!"

"I can't, damnit!" Irvine shot back, the hesitation heard in his shaky voice.

_Oh yeah. Homeboy still ain't got the balls to shoot yet. _Sharon bit her tongue and waited it out while Squall convinced Irvine that it was just a sign for the others to make their move. _That's it... just shoot._

"... just a sign." Irvine repeated to himself, as he kneeled in place and readied his aim. He finally pulled the trigger, and the bullet raced directly towards Edea's head... just for the sorceress to preempt the danger and lift a barrier just in time to deflect it. The gunman let out a half relieved breath and leaned backwards, then looked at Squall with his sincere apologies.

"It's okay. Your aim was perfect." Squall stood up. "Just leave the rest to me. I'm going in for the sorceress. Irvine, Sharon... just be ready to back me up." With that, he grabbed his gunblade and hurried off, mentally trying to figure out what the quickest way to the street level would be.

Irvine sat in silence, fingering the sniper rifle in front of him. In all of his inner turmoil, he had forgotten that Sharon had been there the whole time. _I would expect for her to say something by now... _He looked up at her standing figure, looking out towards the chaos of the parade soundlessly.

"What? No vicious stab at the remains of my deflated ego?" he said jokingly, but his voice sounded way more bitter and serious than he had hoped for.

"It's not your fault." Was Sharon's reply, still looking out as she picked out Squall driving furiously towards the gates in his hijacked vehicle. "If you ask me, it was the asswipe's fault that made the orders. I mean... how can someone expect a single bullet to take down a sorceress with immeasurable power? Doesn't make much sense when you think about it, now does it?"

Irvine blinked at her in surprise, not expecting her to actually be trying to make him feel better. "Yeah well... tell Martine that." He muttered, thinking of just how much shit he was going to be in when he returned to Galbadia Garden.

"Oh, believe me... if I get the chance... I will." Sharon growled dangerously, and met Irvine's gaze with determined eyes. "But... until then..." She flashed a smile. "Let's not leave Mr. Leonhart with all of the heroic fun."

* * *

Seifer eyeballed the group that had just joined the battle between him and his old rival, and weighed his chances. "You all probably thought I was gone for good, huh?" He sneered, never lowering his Hyperion.

"You might as well be, if you up and side with an evil sorceress!" Zell spat back. The gateway team assembled behind Squall, their weapons out as back up. "You can't win against all of us!"

"Oh really? We'll just see about that, chicken-wuss!" Seifer clenched his gunblade and prepared to take them all on, when a spray of bullets hit the ground near his feet, causing him to step back.

"Move aside, move aside! Here comes the cavalry!" Sharon sang, twirling the twin pistols around her pointer finger. Upon hearing her voice, Gina whipped around and caught sight of the two that just reunited with the group. "SHARII-CHAN!" She rushed forward and glomped her best friend, almost cutting off her circulation. "You're okay!"

Sharon laughed and patted Gina on the back. "Dur, of course I am! You know me, I'm always okay!"

"How touching." A feminine voice distracted everyone from their reunions, and everyone turned to see Sorceress Edea rising slowly from her throne, an unnatural light shining from behind her eerie eyes. The many beads that dangled from her elaborate headdress shook with each step she took, and she stopped her advance when she came to Seifer.

_Uh, oh... bad vibe alert,_ Gina stepped back from Sharon and went back to clutching her katana, even though she didn't know if she would ever get close enough to use it.

"The accursed SeeD..." White sparkles began to emit from the ground and travel up her body in a swirling pattern, following the course of her uplifted hand until it materialized into a solid form that hovered in midair. Without any other warning, she flung the ice javelin out at the group of SeeDs, her eyes focused only on one target.

Everyone gasped as it connected with its target, but nothing could amount to the utter disbelief that Gina had. As if in slow motion, she felt the ice javelin move at breakneck speed past her and sink itself into Sharon's right shoulder. She watched in horror as her best friend's mouth formed a perfect O as she careened backwards, but thankfully Irvine was right behind her, and moved quickly to catch her falling figure before it could fly off of the float. Gina finally found her voice and gave a blood-curdling scream, and she dropped her sword on the ground as she reached out and grabbed her hand, kneeling next to her.

"S-S-Sharii-chan!"

"... It wasn't... it's not... I wasn't... supposed to hit..." Sharon babbled incoherently in her shock, her brain not fully registering the events that just happened.

"I know... I know... just... just hang on, Sharii-chan! Everything's going to be okay... you hear me? Everything's gonna be o-" She stopped when she realized that the hand she was holding had gone limp, and had slipped out of her grasp. _Oh my dear god... no... NO! This isn't right! None of this is!_

Squall stared on as Gina continued to break down, not believing her friend's condition. But his attention was drawn away from everyone to see what seemed like a sea of Galbadian soldiers making their way to the float, coming to apprehend those who dared attack the sorceress. _Hyne... if the timing couldn't be worse..._

"SHIT! THE WHOLE FUCKIN' ARMY'S ONTO US!" Zell cursed. "For once, I am SO not in the mood for ass-kicking right now!"

"We have no choice! We've got to defend ourselves!" Squall ordered, readying his gunblade in front of him.

"Against the whole lot of them? Squall, we can't do this!" Quistis pleaded, but was prepared to snap her whip at anyone who approached her with a violent intent.

While the blunt of the group was preparing themselves for a losing battle, Irvine looked down at the unconscious girl laying in his lap. _Maybe... maybe if I had fired earlier... ignored the panic rising in me... I would have hit my target, and she wouldn't have ended up like this... _A wave of guilt washed over him, and he took one slender wrist in his hand, and was immediately alarmed at the weakening pulse Sharon was exhibiting.

"Hey... you guys... I think she's..." He started, but cut himself off as he saw Gina standing up and walking over to where Sorceress Edea and Seifer still stood, as if in a trance. _What the hell does she think she's doing! _As soon as the thought crossed his mind, he noticed that the flames that lit the perimeter of the float had turned blue.

"You... shall... die... for what... you did... to Sharii..." Gina forced out, and a gigantic boulder made of ice dropped down on the throne where the sorceress once proudly sat, completely crushing the seat. Edea looked back in alarm, then glared at the girl in front of her before formulating a portal and stepping through it, with Seifer not far behind.

_Oh, what the hell? I've never seen a Blizzard spell of THAT magnitude. _Irvine's mind raced as he glanced back nervously at the rest of the group, who were somehow holding their own against any Galbadian soldier that dared grace the edges of the float. He knew he wouldn't be able to get their attention, so he looked back at Gina, who had slowly turned back around to face the chaos, her eyes strangely glazed over. _Wait a minute... I thought she had red streaks... not white..._

Gina lifted one hand out, and a wall of invisible power shot out, causing the group of fighting SeeDs to stumble forward and almost off of the float until they regained their footing.

"What the fuck was that..." Zell started, then realized that the soldier he had just been busy pummeling to the ground was frozen in place. He looked out at the army that had just been swarming the float like locusts, and realized that they were all in a similar predicament... as if someone managed to cast Stop on the entire group in one sitting. Everyone looked at each other, then turned around to see Gina just lowering her arm, and continued her agonizingly slow pace forward.

"No WAY! _SHE_ DID IT!" Selphie squeaked out, putting her hands to her mouth.

Irvine watched uncertainly as the girl he thought to be Gina kneeled down next to Sharon, her eyes still not blinking since it all began. Reaching out, she grabbed the top of the ice javelin, and it disappeared in the same white sparkles in which it had been created. She then hovered the same hand over Sharon's wound, and time seemed to reverse in that spot only. The muscles and flesh healed at an alarming rate, and the hole that the javelin had left in her top vanished as the fabric re-laced itself together at Gina's command.

The cowboy noticed the immediate change in Sharon's body temperature, and was relieved to note that her pulse was returning to normal. Gina seemed to notice this as well, and a faint smile graced her lips before her eyes fluttered closed and she passed out.

Everyone just stared on, seemingly rooted to their positions as their brains worked in overtime to try to make sense of what they had just seen happen. Unfortunately, the Stop spell that Gina had cast wore off as soon as she had lost consciousness, and the Galbadian army continued on their way to detaining the rebellious group of SeeDs.


	33. Chapter 33

**A/N: **Alright, I'm back from the desert. The Gobei Desert. You know it's sad when I forget that the Gobei Desert is in China until the plane sets down in the middle of nowhere and we get out. Oh yeah. And when I say the middle of nowhere I MEAN THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE. We were THE only plane in the desert. There was NO airport, just a strip of pavement, one small two story building, and sand. Lots of sand. Zomg. It was half freaky and half really freaking awesome. I went a lot of other places too including Xian and Dunhuang and all of that, but I could write my own novel on all of the crazy shit I've done in China. And I'm still here till August, w00t!

But let me shut up and get to the chapter updates you guys have been waiting for, LOL.

* * *

Sharon opened her eyes wearily. _Goddamn. What time is it?_ She buried her head back into her folded arms, wondering just why the hell she decided to fall asleep with the overhead lights on... AGAIN. Hadn't she learned from the last time she'd done it awhile back? Maybe it accounted for the eccentric dream she'd had that lasted what seemed like over months. She'd had dreams like that before, and they always disoriented her and made her think that kinda crap actually happened.

_But dang, this dream... I gotta tell G-fuu when we go out to dinner... but oh, crap! I didn't start packing to go home for winter break! I can always pack later... this will blow her mind when I... _Sharon stopped her train of thought when she realized that she wasn't lying face down in her bed, but on a cold metal floor. Lifting her head off of her arms for a second time, she looked up and around, taking the time to examine her surroundings.

That's when she realized that she wasn't in her dorm room, and further investigation confirmed that it was not all a very long dream. _It's all real..._ Sharon looked down sharply at her shoulder where she just remembered she was stabbed, and found no injury, not even a hole in the clothes. "What in the fuck..."

"You're finally up." A voice spoke up from behind her. Sharon pulled herself up, and turned to see Irvine sitting against one wall. "Did I ever mention how amusing it is to watch you sleep?"

"Did I ever mention how NERVE-WRACKING it is to see your face every other time I wake up?" She bit back, removing her glasses to clean off a few smudges.

The cowboy just grinned. "Hopefully next time it happens, we'll be sharing a much more comfortable room in a plush..."

"IF YOU FINISH THAT GODDAMN SENTENCE I SWEAR TO GOD..." Sharon yelled, then lowered her voice. "... now is not the time to castrate you. Where the hell are we? Better yet... where's Gina? She was with us, right? What happened after I got hit? DID THAT SORCERESS BITCH HIT HER TOO!"

"No, no... just calm down..."

"WHAT THE HELL, I CAN'T BE CALM IF I DON'T KNOW WHERE GINA IS!"

A loud banging on the door to the strange room sounded. "HEY! QUIET DOWN IN THERE!" A gruff voice ordered, then continued his patrol of the floor.

A vein popped out of Sharon's head. "The fucking hell... DO YOU WANT A PIECE OF ME! SHIT ASS MOTHER FUCKING..." She yelled at the door.

Irvine got up from his place near the wall and grabbed Sharon's shoulders. "Alright, you've snapped. Just... stop yelling so much and sit down, and I'll explain what I DO know. Okay?" He coaxed Sharon to sit next to his place against the wall, and waited until she took a few deep breaths and remembered to put her glasses back on her face.

"In answer to your first question, we are in D-District prison, probably awaiting some kind of vicious punishment for beating down tons of Galbadian soldiers and an attempted assassination on the sorceress." Irvine began. "I don't know exactly where Gina is, but my guess is that she's somewhere in this prison, too. Now... what happened after you got hit... is a different story altogether."

Sharon stared at him. "This has something to do with my apparently healed injury, doesn't it?"

"Just... remind me NEVER to piss Gina off."

* * *

"I did all of THAT?" Gina gaped at Zell.

Quistis nodded. "It's unbelievable, I know. But what's even more unbelievable is the fact that you don't remember any of it."

Gina just blinked. _All I remember was Sharii-chan getting hit... I thought I passed out from shock or something... _She looked down at her hands in wonder, and then a string of fear laced itself into her thoughts. _What in the hell happened to me? Was it even really me back there? What if it happens again and I end up hurting someone... oh lord..._

Selphie pouted at Gina's troubled expression, and scooted over and gave her a hug. "It's okay, Gina. We don't know what's going on, either, but we'll figure it all out sooner or later."

"Yeah. Like, where everyone else is." Zell put in, looking around. "Even though the Ward in my dream did work here as a janitor, it doesn't give me any ideas as to just how we're going to get out of here, much less find everyone else. This place has a LOT of floors, and I don't know if it would be possible to search every single one."

Gina raised an eyebrow, but kept her thoughts to herself. She knew where Squall probably was... but what troubled her a lot more was the unknown location of her best friend. When she looked up absentmindedly at the cell door, it opened, and in hopped a moomba with a tray of some variety of food. Her eyes widened as she gaped soundlessly at the furry creature, taking in almost every detail it had to offer. It was her first time seeing one of them, and ever since she started playing FFVIII, she thought they were the cutest little things.

When Selphie smiled and took the tray from the little guy, Gina moved forward and with slight hesitation, petted the soft, spiky fur atop its head. The moomba jumped a bit at being touched with such gentleness, and turned to look up at Gina with hopeful tiny black eyes. When it was sure that Gina wasn't going to hurt it, it let out a little squeal and hopped on its big feet, causing Gina's heart to melt as she knelt down and huggled the orange ball of fur.

Quistis raised an eyebrow at this. "I think... Gina's getting attached to one of this prison's more adorable personnel."

"Well, that's good. The moomba will help her stay distracted from thinking too much and worrying herself more." Selphie said, then turned to Zell. "Hey... do you think we could skin him when Gina's not looking and use it as a disguise!"

"NO!" Gina yelped, looking back at Selphie. "Find another way to get us out." She went back to petting her newfound friend. "Oh, and by the way... they have an anti-magic force field around this entire prison, so it would have to be disabled before we could cast or summon anything."

"How would you know without trying to cast... alright, I know, I know..." Quistis waved off Selphie and Zell's pointed looks before they could once again tell her that Gina was psychic. "We can't use magic. And we don't have our weapons. How could we do this?"

Zell cracked his knuckles and grinned. "I TOLD you that weapons are more trouble than they're worth. Man, just wait till I rub it in Jenkson's face when we get back to Garden... just leave it all to me. I'll use my natural, Hyne-given ass kicking skills to get em back. Unfortunately for Gina..." He looked at her sheepishly. "... it involves you detaching yourself from the moomba for a couple of minutes."

* * *

Irvine watched Sharon pace back and forth across the cell floor, as if she was getting impatient... but for what? It wasn't like they had a chance in hell of breaking out of a max security prison without their weapons. He knew by now that she was just one big ball of pent up energy, but walking a hole into the floor wasn't going to do either of them much good. "What are you thinking about?"

"How long it would possibly take to search every single cell to find Gina once I break the hell outta here."

Irvine looked at her in disbelief. He'd never seen somebody so adamant about saving someone else, best friend or not. _Unless... _"Hey... you and Gina aren't... um... ya know...?"

Sharon stopped pacing and gave him a quizzical look. "Huh? The hell you implying..." Her eyes widened in recognition, and she immediately rushed over and grabbed Irvine by the collar and shoved him against the wall. "ARE YOU TRYING TO SAY THAT GINA AND I ARE LESBIANS?!"

"W-well, I just thought... you with all the colors... her with all the boyish clothes... and both of you seem really protective of each other..."

Sharon just continued to stare at him incredulously. _This fool is serious. _She let go of his collar and stepped back, beginning to laugh uncontrollably. Irvine pulled himself together and eyed her cautiously as her laughter began to border on maniacal. _Aw, man... is she going to kill me after she gets over the shock that I actually THOUGHT of something like that?_

Coughing as a way to suppress the rest of her cackles, Sharon folded her arms. "Well... I guess I can't blame you for that. I just realized how wrong our relationship just might look due to your aforementioned observations. I mean, people have wondered about us before when we were in high school and GVSU and stuff, but..." She let out another chuckle. "I'm sorry to ruin your sick, testosterone-induced daydreams, but Gina and I are not lesbian lovers."

Irvine let out a sigh of relief, thankful that he didn't inadvertently cause his own death with his last statement. "Well... I thought I had it all figured out by now."

"Had what figured out? Boy, our friendship is as close as it is because of all the crap that we've been through. It's just that society is so fricken mioptic that they think a bond that deep automatically means that the people have to be romantically involved." Sharon rolled her eyes.

"Oh... well, I was thinking more in terms as finding the reason you don't like me." Irvine grinned sheepishly, and Sharon shot him an exasperated look. She opened her mouth to retort back to him all of the reasons she hated his obnoxious guts, but none came to mind. _C'mon, Sharon, now's the time to tell this bitch off, so don't get cold feet. _"Cause I just hate you, that's why."

"There HAS to be a better reason than THAT."

"Well... whatever reason it is, it's a good one. And just because I can't remember exactly WHY is of no importance. I'm just stressed out cause of all this crazy crap that's been unfolding right on top of another, so piss me off again in a calmer environment and I'll tell you then." Sharon said stubbornly.

Irvine just continued to stare at her. "Or maybe... you never had a reason in the first place."

Sharon blinked repeatedly and rubbed her temples. "What the SHIT... first, you accuse me and Gina of being gay lovers, then you claim like you know just how the hell my mind works. If you KNEW half of ANYTHING, then you would just be satisfied with the fact that I dislike you IMMENSELY and leave me the hell alone."

The cowboy just started smiling like he just got a revelation. "That's why you're always so defensive! You don't know how to handle falling for me, so you..."

"OH MY FUCKING GOD. SHUT THE HELL UP RIGHT NOW BEFORE I HAVE A CONIPTION OVER YOUR APPARENT DUMBASSEDNESS!" Sharon once again lowered her voice to normal levels before the guard came back and bitched at her again. "Can't you just be like everyone ELSE I scare off and just let it be?"

"Well... no. Don't you ever want to figure out why people are the way they are?"

"... yes. But that doesn't mean I have to pry into everyone's heads to find out. I mean, I don't just up and drill into your mind to find out just what's up with you and your sudden cold feet about doing what you're specialized TO do."

Irvine fell silent and took on an expression as if he was in deep thought. After a bit more silence, he said quietly, "I guess you have a point."

Sharon heaved a big sigh, and knew that she touched a nerve. _Damn... now he's all angsty. All I wanted was to get him off my back! _"Look... sorry about that. I always open my big mouth and say things bluntly... umm... oh, just screw it." She plopped down on the floor, once again pissed at herself for doing what she never failed to do time and time again.

_If you really hated him, then you wouldn't feel sorry for what you said._

Sharon twitched at the little voice. _Just because I hate him doesn't mean that I wanted to exploit his weakness just to get back at him. That's just cold._

_That was an oxymoron, and you know it. Every time you yell at him, you hope that he doesn't take it personally... and now that he finally did, you realize just how much you-_

All thoughts were halted when both prisoners jumped as a loud, obnoxious buzzing noise sounded, combined with a flashing red light coming from the circular hallway outside.

"Warning! Escapee alert! Monsters will be set loose on each floor. If escapee refuses to surrender, you have permission to kill. The anti-magic field will be lifted." An electronic announcer droned, almost drowned out by the alarm.

"Who the hell would even try to escape without knowing it would lead to this?" Irvine quipped.

"Dur. Take your best guess, Sherlock. I will give you a hint; it's probably the only people in this whole fucked up complex that would have the balls to do it, and know that they can take on whatever this place throws at em." Sharon moved to the door and wasn't surprised when it slid open with ease. "Let's go get our weapons and blast all them Galbadian bastards!"

* * *

**Mudora:** LOL I was hoping that people wouldn't see that part coming; I don't want this whole story to be totally predictable, you know? AoA has a pretty good instinct though... -eyeballs her- I have to try harder to mask my fanfiction intentions even though I completely and utterly suck at it and she'll read into what happens anyway! whee! LOL

**QueenAdreena:** Well... somebody had to be the less annoying sorceress. I have really big problems writing Rinoa's character because I don't really like her, and I don't want to fuck up a character I can't really read, you know? So I had to do something to balance stuff out... hopefully by the time this longass retarded fanfiction reaches its close I will find a way to accurately tolerate her character enough to write her in the sequel... -cough-

**Angel Of Apocolypse:** Your random guesses are almost like psychic twinges, LOL! I don't know if I want Squall to fall for Gina just yet... I might be more comfortable with them becoming friends so Squall can stop getting his leather pants in a bunch and trust people first, and then maybe after that he can start thinking about relationships and all of that good stuff... but who knows? Squall can only think about one thing at a time, you know? hehe!


	34. Chapter 34

Squall felt as if he'd been from hell and back, and the heat in the outside desert wasn't helping his fragile condition any. _At least the prison was cooler._ He remembered all of them being detained, and rather quickly by the perusing Galbadian army, then falling under a deep sleep spell they had cast over the group that wasn't already unconscious. Getting out of the prison was easier than he had thought, seeing as thought they beat all the odds of getting re-detained and racing out of there while the submerge system was going full blast. Even though he'd never admit it to them, Squall was so relieved to find his comrades pretty much unharmed. If they had undergone the torture that he'd somehow survived... well, he didn't really want to dwell on the possibilities of that.

Emotionally, he was still trying to get over a lot of things that he didn't have answers for. He HALF had a reason for Seifer's sudden interest in being the sorceress' lapdog; something about it being his so-called 'romantic' dream. _But what kind of dream would make him do horrible things to the people he's known for almost all of his life_? Squall knew that Seifer wasn't the most stable person the garden had to offer, but doing all of this was just out of control. _Maybe this is why SeeDs are never meant to question anything. It causes too much thinking._

"Maybe... you should let him go free, now. It was nice of you to help him escape from the prison with us, but... umm..." Quistis eyeballed Gina, who still had her moomba friend trailing along with her.

"No! Ravi stays with me."

"... Ravi?"

"I named him. Isn't that right, Ravi?"

"R-r-r-ravi!"

The instructor bit her lip to keep from giggling, and stole a sideways glance at Squall. "Well, Squall... you're the leader. What do you think of the new addition to our group?"

Honestly, he didn't care any other way. He knew one thing though; if people kept calling him "leader", then he was sure that his head was going to implode. "Whatever. We have other things to worry about, like warning Balamb of a possible missile attack."

"Speak of the devil." Sharon mused, and everyone trained their eyes to the sky to see a stream of freshly fired missiles shoot through the sky towards their destination. "Someone up in that missile base must be more trigger happy than I am... and that's damn scary."

"Hey... weren't they gonna hit Trabia first?" Zell blurted out, then clapped his hand over his mouth and looked apologetically at Selphie, whose face paled at the news flash. Her head slowly sank downward in a muted shock, and she immediately began praying that the missiles wouldn't completely decimate her native garden.

Irvine stepped over and put a reassuring hand on the normally hyper girl's shoulder. "It's okay... everything's gonna turn out alright, so don't worry." Then his facial expression took on a confused look. "All of this really doesn't make any sense. Just because we just happened to be SeeDs mixed up in all of this doesn't mean that the sorceress should blame EVERY single garden there is. It's not like we've been trained to defeat her from birth."

Gina and Sharon traded knowing glances at the irony of that statement. _Oh, if only they knew. Well, they'll all find out soon enough._

Squall shook his head with a hand to his forehead, knowing that all of the inquiries mentioned had already raced through his mind. "Sitting here trying to figure out exactly what's going on is going to get us nowhere. Right now, the only thing we can do is report back to Headmaster Cid and try to prevent as many casualties as possible."

"We won't have causalities if we can stop the next missile launch!" Selphie spoke up, a determined look in her emerald eyes. "I say that three of us go to the missile base and blow it to smithereens!"

Quistis raised an eyebrow. "How do you plan to go about this? If you get caught, then you'll end up right back in the prison we just narrowly escaped from."

"Well... I got part of it planned out." Selphie pointed back to the yellow truck she previously rode in. "I noticed three Galbadian uniforms stashed away in the back when I got in. If we put those on, then we'll be able to get in no problem... uh... hopefully." She grinned sheepishly. "It should all come together after we get inside."

"When in doubt... blow shit up! I like that rationale." Sharon clasped her hands together. "So, Mr. Leonhart... who's going where?"

Squall blinked at the group incredulously. Why did everyone always seem to look to him for confirmation in EVERYTHING? At this rate, he wasn't surprised if a couple of them ran up to him to ask if it was okay to use the bathroom or something. "... If everything works out, then I guess it's worth it. Sharon, since you seem so empathetic about 'blowing shit up', then I assign you to the missile base team."

"w00t! Can I drive? I'll get us there REAL quick!" She piped up, holding up a high five to Selphie who slapped it enthusiastically.

"Well, well, I can't have you ladies taking all of the fun, now can I?" Irvine winked, and turned his attention towards Squall. "If it's quite alright, then I volunteer myself to be the third person on the missile base group."

In Sharon's mind, the sound of glass breaking was heard. "Aw, HELL naw! You can't do that!"

"I just did. Someone needs to watch over you ladies."

"If that's the goddamn case, then I would prefer it not be someone who thinks with his DICK instead of his pea-brain!"

Zell clapped a hand over his mouth before he burst out in loud laughter. "There they go again. You sure you want them within 3 miles of each other? They might get their cover blown if they go in bickering."

Sharon whipped around. "Oh, we'll get the job done. Just don't be too surprised if Mr. cowboy here accidentally on purpose gets locked in the base while the bombs go off."

Squall stifled another "whatever" that was ready to pass from his lips, and settled for the exasperated roll of the eyes instead. "Let's keep the behavior PROFESSIONAL, so we can focus on getting everything done accordingly. Are we all ready to head out?"

As Quistis and Zell gave Squall a nod and headed for the blue vehicle, Gina ran over and huggled her best friend tightly. "Remember, make sure the error ratio for the missiles is set to maximum, and you go to the upload page directly afterwards to get the data into the system." She whispered.

"Yeah, I got it. We'll be fine. And this time, I mean what I say." Sharon gave her friend a final squeeze, and bent down to pet Ravi on the head. "Take care of G-fuu while I'm gone, ya hear?" Ravi responded by letting out a squeal and a little hop, and hurried to catch up with Gina as she got in the car. Sharon watched as they drove off, a cloud of sand left behind in the wake.

_Get it together. You'll all make it back safely._ She told herself, and she turned to face her other two group members with a smile. "Alrighty then, I guess the first thing we have to do is get into those uniforms. Thankfully, they look big enough to fit over our clothes." Sharon reached into the truck and pulled out a blue Galbadian outfit. "Man... these things are ugly as hell."

"... and they're ITCHY!" Selphie complained before she even completely put half of one on. "I hope we don't have to stay in them for too long."

The infamous light bulb went off above Sharon head again, and she inched over to Selphie. "Psst... here's your chance. Go make Irvine help you into your uniform."

Selphie immediately blushed a deep red. "S-say what? I can't just ask him to do something like that!"

Sharon sighed. _I swear, and they call Zell a chicken-wuss. _"HEY MR. COWBOY! C'mere and make yourself useful, cause our missile base leader here needs help getting into her disguise!" She ignored the desperate tugging at her arm, and as she had predicted, Irvine brightened at the idea of helping a cute girl in any way that he could. "I can't just leave a lady in distress, now can I?" He said as he made his way over.

Sharon stifled a cackle as she pulled away from the embarrassed Selphie. _I get great enjoyment out of putting people together who should be together... especially if they're too embarrassed to do anything about it themselves. _She walked over to the other side of the yellow truck to give them their own space. _At least this way, I can be distracted from the SLIM possibility that I might not hate him as much as I think I do. I don't know what's wrong with me in the first place to even WANT to like someone like him, anyway. _Pushing her thoughts to the back of her mind, Sharon fitted the helmet over her head. "ALRIGHT PEEPLES! ARE WE READY TO BOOGIE?"

* * *

"LAGUNA!" Ravi yelped out excitedly for what seemed like the millionth time, batting at Squall's arm. Squall had no idea why the moomba was calling him Laguna, but he sure as hell wanted it to stop. How was he supposed to drive with that damn thing yelling in his ear every 3 seconds?

Gina reached over and pulled her new pet back, not wanting Squall to park the car and test out the sharpness of his gunblade on the little rascal. "Umm... Ravi, let's learn a new word. It's called 'Squall'. That's his name... not Laguna."

"It's really funny how Ravi keeps calling him that, though. Especially since Squall is Laguna in the dream world." Zell said from the backseat, sitting with his arms behind his head. "Hey... I wonder what Ravi'll call me?"

At the mention of his name, Ravi pounced on Zell. "ZELL!"

Quistis didn't bother to stop her giggles this time. "Well, it seems as though Ravi is sure about YOUR identity." She took the time to scratch the moomba behind the ears, now glad that Gina didn't listen to her and leave the poor thing behind.

Meanwhile, without Ravi to keep her occupied, Gina found herself getting the nervous butterflies in her stomach again. _It's gonna be hell back at Garden... I most likely won't be seeing Sharii-chan again until we reach Fisherman's Horizon... that's a long way away... _She looked over at Squall, who had his crystal blue eyes trained steadily on the road in front of him. _He's probably got so much shit on his mind right now... I just hope that stunt I pulled isn't one of em._

"Squall... uh..." Gina started, not really sure of what she wanted to say. "I know there's a lot of pressure on you right now, but I just uh... wanted to tell you that the stuff I did back in Deling shouldn't be one of your concerns."

He glanced over at her briefly. He'd be lying if he told her that it wasn't, but it was obvious that she didn't want any more stuff to be on his shoulders than there already was. _She's the only person so far that seems to NOT pile more responsibilities on my shoulders. _"...The Headmaster is going to want to have a full report when we get back." Squall replied.

"Speaking of the headmaster, I wonder if he thinks we're all still in prison." Quistis wondered out loud.

"Probably. I don't think anyone has ever made an escape like we just did." Zell grinned. "Well, we got a kickass story to tell everyone. It's gonna be great! We're gonna be so awesome!"

"RAWR!" Ravi joined in as best he could.

Gina gave them all a smile, but she knew their trials would just keep getting worse and worse as the game carried on. _Man, why the hell am I still calling it a game? It's obvious that this is anything but. This is taking RPG to a whole nother level._


	35. Chapter 35

**A/N:** So, I know the updates haven't been as frequent as they used to be, but being in China has FINALLY started to take it's toll. I'm actually doing my Chinese HW now, and going out and being social with other members of the group. I also made a couple of Chinese friends, so we go out a lot and I don't have to worry about messing shit up because I have someone who can speak fluent Chinese with me:D Yeah. But since tomorrow I'm going to be on my way out to Putuo Island (wow... I haven't been next to an ocean in.. a VERY long time) for a week before heading back to Shanghai, so I made sure I updated now. I'll be back in the United States August 7th, so the updating schedule should even out by then.

Unless I mess up and get that horrible thing called writers block. -cowers in fear-

* * *

"DUCK!" Simultaneously, three figures managed to narrowly avoid the swing of a T-Rexaur's mighty tail as it whooshed over their heads and crashed into one of the once-beautiful fish-like water fountains surrounding the center of Balamb Garden. It broke in half and crumbled in the previously untainted aquamarine water, splashing some on the tiled walkways.

Squall seethed and ran at the dinosaur again, this time aiming for the tail that it had almost succeeded in crushing him with. He cut deep gashes all along the base of it, but it only succeeded in angering the monster more. The T-Rexaur growled down to Squall's level to take a bite out of him, just in time to catch a flurry of kicks and punches from the equally irate Zell. The last kick offset the dinosaur's balance, and it careened to the side and thumped to the ground heavily.

"Damn... I really hope for sure that it's down for good THIS time." The martial artist groaned.

"I don't think that this is the same one you're referring to." Gina pushed some loose strands of hair off of her forehead. "All the monsters from the Training Center are loose in here, so there could be more. Not that I'm looking forward to any more of these encounters, either."

Amongst all of the commotion running one way, a familiar figure was quickly approaching them, with a moomba in tow. "You guys, I found Xu!" Quistis called out. "After explaining to her the possible missile attack, she told me that the Headmaster is in his office, safe and sound. Everything else is just a diversion for those who wish harm upon him."

"Man, I don't GET all of this! Who the hell is this NORG dude, anyway? I've never heard of him, but already I'm getting ticked off if he's claiming that he's the true owner of this garden! Turning all those Garden Faculty against us... well, they took my T-board, so it's not like I have any problem beating them down..."

Squall shook his head. "Maybe the Headmaster knows something... but until we tell him about the missiles, then..." He looked up suddenly to see a very aggressive Bomb barreling its way towards them, its first target to possibly be the back of Quistis' head. "LOOK OUT!"

Acting fast, Gina concentrated a Blizzard spell on the moving target, actually freezing it solid in midair. Quistis turned and snapped her whip at her frozen attacker, bursting it into thousands of little ice shards. Ravi jumped in innocent glee, dancing around in the falling pieces as if it was snowing.

"You know... I think you just might be more adept at using magic than you are at your sword." Quistis mentioned with a smile, then tuned her gaze on Squall. "I hope this is not because you half-trained her, Squall."

Before he could open his mouth, Zell, Quistis, and Gina both called out in unison: "Whatever." Squall sighed and walked past them all, wordlessly signaling his intent to get to the Headmaster's office as quickly as possible. They all piled in the elevator and rode it to the 3rd floor, where they found themselves in a lushly decorated lobby that led to a pair of mahogany doors. Pushing them open, they all lined up and saluted Headmaster Cid.

Unfortunately, the Headmaster wasn't really facing their group at the moment. His eyes were trained to the windows in the back of his office, and for a moment Squall wondered if he even knew they were there. "Sir..."

Cid turned around then, and everyone was surprised to see that their beloved headmaster appeared years older. His usually cheerful eyes that were lit up by the fatherly smile he always seemed to possess were drained, and there were slight dark circles underlining them. "Xu has told me about the missiles. Because the intercom is down, she, Raijin and Fujin are assisting in the order to evacuate."

"But I have a lot to report." Squall protested, not really wanting to leave the headmaster in a state like this.

"You can tell me later. I plan to stay here, and see all of this through to the end. This place is like my home, and I cannot just abandon it so easily." Cid started, then noticed the young SeeD's hesitation. "Do you have a problem with that?"

"But... but... you're gonna die here!" Zell belted out desperately. "How are we supposed to accept something like that!"

"Don't be so sure about that, Zell." Headmaster Cid replied, a trace of a smile on his face. "There might be a way to save the Garden. I'm staying here to try it out."

Quistis shot a troubled glance at Squall, as if expecting him to do something to stop this madness. For once, Squall was too preoccupied to be annoyed at the fact that someone was once again depending on him to do something. _Against missiles? How?_ "Sir... I would like to handle whatever it is you're planning."

"And why is that?"

Squall hesitated once again, the headmaster's question sending him back into his flurry of thoughts and possible reasons for him even volunteering to do something that he didn't even know before jumping into it. Of course, he wasn't about to pour his heart out to him, or to anybody else standing in that office. They'd think he'd went crazy and start to judge him, more than what they possibly were already doing.

"Because we want to save this place just as much as you do, Headmaster." Gina spoke up. "As SeeDs, weren't we trained to do more than just run away from a pressure situation? Although Xu and the others are most probably giving everyone the order to evacuate, I'd bet all my money that half of them are being stubborn and aren't leaving, either. They have too much here to lose, and if it means their destruction in the process, then they're more than prepared to take that risk. You'd better believe the same goes for all of us standing right here." Gina took a deep breath and let out a grin. "And besides... didn't anyone ever tell you that letting out half-information only causes the recipients a want to know more?"

Squall looked over at her, trying to keep his expression as neutral as possible despite the fact that he was shocked as hell that she'd had the balls to say mostly all that he couldn't. Cid didn't do much to hide his shock either, then let out a chuckle that reminded everyone of how their headmaster used to be before all of the commotion came about. "Very well said, Regina. I do believe you've sold me on your speech. I'm getting too old for this, anyway." He reached over to a desk and picked up a key, which he tossed over to Squall.

"This building used to be a shelter, long before it was remodeled into the Garden that we know today. That key can be used in the elevator to unlock the entry in the MD levels of this complex. Down there, it is said that there is a control panel that was used when this was a shelter, so whatever it may do... if it's actually down there... might prove beneficial."

Squall nodded and saluted once more. "I understand. We'll find the control system and check it out."

"Good luck to all of you." Cid nodded in return, and Zell, Quistis, and Squall walked out of the office. Gina stayed behind, and cleared her throat. "Umm... sir? Can I ask you a small favor?"

The headmaster tilted his head, and Gina smiled down at Ravi. "I picked up my little moomba friend back at the D-District prison we all sorta broke out of. I'm sure when Squall gets the chance, he'll fill you in on how we all ended up in there if you don't already know. It was gonna break my heart to leave him there, so I took him with us. However, I don't think that Ravi should be running around with us while we investigate the MD levels."

"And you want me to look after him for you, correct?" Cid finished for her. "Ravi... that's an interesting name. I must say, you do have a good head on your shoulders, with a big heart to match." He scratched the back of his head. "I'll do my best... but I don't know the first thing about moomba care."

Gina waved it off. "Ravi's a low-maintenance moomba, anyway, so you should be fine until we get back." She bent down to Ravi and gave the moomba a hug. "You be good now. Gina's gonna be back soon, and she wants you to keep an eye on Headmaster Cid." Ravi squealed and hopped to stand at Cid's feet, looking mighty determined to complete the task he was given. Gina gave a final wave to both moomba and headmaster, then turned to hurry to the elevator where everyone was already waiting.

"I wonder if the others are okay?" Quistis mused as the elevator began its decent. "If the missiles really are on their way here, then does that mean..."

"They're fine." Gina interrupted, a determined look upon her face. "I'm sure of it. You'll see for yourself soon enough."

Quistis raised an eyebrow. "Another psychic twinge?"

Gina just grinned, a knowing sparkle in her eyes. "Naw. This time, I just KNOW. Trust me on this. Besides, it'll keep our minds clear to our mission ahead."

"And she really IS psychic." Zell said stubbornly, folding his arms across his chest. "It's only you and Squall who don't believe it. I swear, out all of the things Gina's got us out of, you'd think by now you'd-WHOA!" He cut himself off as the elevator gave a lurch and stopped abruptly. "Aww MAN! Now what?"

Squall pressed the buttons on the elevator repeatedly. "It's not responding..." He looked around, and then down to find an outline of a small hatch. Reaching down, he pulled up the stiff metal door and looked out to see that it led to a rusted steel ladder leading further down. "Everyone be careful; no one's been down here for awhile."

"And it would help to hurry once we're on the ladder." Gina clenched her teeth as she waited for Squall to go down first. She didn't want to risk turning her ankle, but anything was better than getting smashed in an elevator shaft once the thing miraculously started moving again. After they had all safely made it into the first tunnel, Gina let out a sigh of relief and followed everyone further down into the complex. Unlike the game, there weren't any monsters there to fight, which made the whole trek relatively easier. A few more rusted ladders and valves later, the group found themselves in a core like place with the said control panel in front of it.

Squall looked down at it uncertainly. _What the hell am I supposed to do? Even the headmaster doesn't know._ He touched a switch, and paused for a minute. _Does this thing even work?_

"Give it one more go." Gina said reassuringly. Squall looked skeptically at her, but instead of questioning just how she was supposed to know how to work whatever he was trying to get going, he just obeyed and pushed the switch again.

"What was that noise?" Quistis looked up and ahead of all of them, where the core started to resonate and pulse blue. "Did it work?"

"Umm... everyone hold on to something!" Gina reached for the railing, and the platform that they were all standing on glowed a blinding white, then shot upwards at alarming speed. Gina honestly thought she was going to be sick, since it reminded her of those thrill park rides that Sharon loved so much. She opened her eyes she never remembered squeezing shut, and found them all in a raised portion of Cid's office, with the headmaster and Ravi looking around in a similar dazed manner. The floating ring that once circled the tall spire of the Garden slowly enlarged and spun itself down to the ground, causing the entire place to change appearance as it did so.

"HEY! THOSE ARE MISSLES!" Zell pointed out of the large window encircling the office now. Everyone watched in horror as the missiles raced towards the Garden and shot straight upward before heading down. Narrowly, but by enough, each missile missed its target and burrowed into the earthen ground, causing clouds of dirt to spray out every which way. The Garden detached itself from the ground at that moment, and slowly hummed its way across the plains, away from the debris the attack and the transformation left.

"WHOO-HOO!" Zell jumped up. "THIS IS TOTALLY AWESOME!" Ravi joined the martial artist in his celebration, as anything dealing with jumping around made the moomba happy. Quistis took a deep breath of relief, and Squall was standing in the middle of it all, half wondering if everything he saw really just happened.

"Uh... before we start celebrating prematurely..." Gina spoke up calmly. "Maybe we should do something about us crashing into the town of Balamb."

Everyone shot her a terrified look, half wondering how in the world could she be so docile about announcing a thing like that. Cid went over and started messing with the controls frantically. "It's not responding... I don't know what to do!" He looked to Squall with a panicked look. "Can you think of something?"

_Oh, no. Not this crap again... just what in the heck do they expect me to do? _Rushing to the control panel, he just pushed random buttons, some even at the same time, until the Garden gave a vibration and slowly began turning away from its previous course.

Cid gave a big smile. "Well, we're turning! Whatever you did Squall, we sure are grateful!"

"Yeah. Until we crash into the sea, that is." Gina told them nonchalantly, and tried her hardest not to burst out laughing as everyone expression once again face faulted as they confirmed that what she said was true. _Man, I know I shouldn't be messing with them, but even I can't pass up something like this. _

After a semi-rough landing into the deep waters of the sea, the headmaster wiped his brow. "Well... a job well done to everyone. I believe the worst is behind us for now..." He paused as everyone looked over at Gina, expecting her to broadcast something else unfortunate.

"Hmm?" Gina smiled angelically, and envisioned Sharon scolding her for once again playing the part of the innocent.

"Where are we headed?" Squall asked.

"We'll just take it easy and drift along until we can figure out how to maneuver the Garden. We can finally relax until then, and consider what to do next. However..." The headmaster gave a slightly troubled look around. "So much for my room. Where am I going to change now?"

Everyone looked at him incredulously, then burst out laughing, something that they all desperately needed after going through all that they have. Squall, however, was still wondering how the hell the rest of them could laugh when they didn't know what was ahead of them. Gina brushed off her hoodie and held her hand out to Ravi. "Well, I'm gonna go check out what's going on outside with Ravi. I could use the fresh air. Anyone wanna come with?"

Zell pumped a fist in the air. "ME!" He rushed forward to the lift, and picked up Ravi and put him on his shoulders as they all rode the lift down. Quistis gave a smile, and stood up as well. "I believe I'll join them." She looked at Squall for a moment, but didn't say anything more as she got on the lift and went below.

Squall put a hand to his forehead and sighed. He almost jumped as he felt a reassuring hand on his shoulder, and turned to see Headmaster Cid smiling at him. "Go, Squall. You deserve a break. I'll take care of things best I can here."

Nodding and giving another salute, Squall left the bridge and made his way to the elevator, fully contemplating to stretch out and take a much needed nap on his comfy bed. But, after a moments consideration, he found himself on the way to the 2nd floor deck where he knew everyone was waiting.

* * *

**Angel of Apocolapse:** Squall on the SUBWAY diet? ROTGLMFAO! Man, I just thought that he did way too much shopping at Hot Topic (when it was still a good place to shop) and got over excited in the belt section. They told him that he couldn't go Punk or Emo so he settled for semi-emo goth. He's still in teen angst stage, though, so that's all that matters. LOL And Zell... I just thought he was into the skater baggy as hell shorts thing going. But it's still fun to wonder! lol

**Queen Adreena:** I honestly didn't think I was going to be able to update here in China. But with that wonderful thing called a Flash Drive and a USB port and determination, as long as I have access to this internet bar right outside the back gate of "Hua Dong Shi Da" (East China Normal University) then I'll try my best to update. I don't like to leave what little fans I have hanging, you know? I may write firstly for myself, but it's the fans that makes it all worth it. WOW that was ultra cheesy moment. Perhaps I need to be shot for that.

**GurassuShinzo:** Wow, a new reviewer! I had to blink twice when I saw it on the reviews page! Well, I'm glad you like the story so far, and I hope that I keep you interested with the later chapters (this fiction is getting WAY TOO FREAKING LONG... but oh well it's fun to write). Maybe more people actually read this story but they just don't review because I didn't do the "zomg R/R plz LololZ1!1" thing in the summary. But that's alright; I'll keep my best up for you guys that do take the precious time out to post a review. ; Cause I appreciate it.

**Aniis:** Wow, yeah I was wondering where you've been. No internet for 3 weeks? That fuckin sucks; I don't know how I would have survived. In fact, I probably would not have. Too addicted to the internet for my own good. I mean, it's gotten to the point where a computer that is not hooked to the internet is all but useless for me. Isn't that sad? But yeah... Ravi would be a good house pet... and a good watch dog, too. LOL


	36. Chapter 36

**A/N:** Did I mention I HATE MOSQUITOES! China is freaking infested. If you see a dark cloud, then it might be mosquitoes just hanging in the air, chillin' out. It's that bad. Not to mention the constant humidity and 110 degree weather. Yeah. Okay back to the story, just had to do a mini rant. XD

* * *

Gina walked down the long hallway to the library, stifling a big yawn. She'd been napping on and off while they'd been drifting away at sea, but she really couldn't stand to be in that dorm room for long. No matter how much she tried to convince herself that Sharon would be fine, looking at all of her things sitting untouched felt too nostalgic. Gina really didn't like finding her best friend one minute, then having her disappear the next.

After enjoying the view and the breeze from the 2nd floor balcony, she let Zell go off and play with Ravi while she went to the Training Center to try and see if she could willingly make her mysterious powers come out. She was scared, but at the same time she wanted to see this for herself, since evidently the first time she couldn't remember. But, all Gina succeeded in doing was depleting her magic supply and making a whole bunch of test subjects in the Training Center pissed off. After that escapade, Gina decided it was okay to write it all off as a freak accident of sorts and forget about it. It hadn't happened since, so it wasn't as much as a threat as Gina first thought.

She supposed that she could've tried seeing if they would have resurfaced during the battle with NORG, but as luck would have it, she was so tired from her little Training Center exercise that she slept right through that, and evidently missed the White SeeD ship taking away Ellone shortly thereafter. It wasn't anything Gina didn't know would happen anyway, but she was still disappointed like any hardcore FFVIII fan would be if they got the chance of a lifetime to see it all first hand like she was doing. _But I guess I should be happy that I'm still in one piece after all of this... let's hope my luck doesn't run out._

Back in Detroit, Gina wouldn't dare step into another library. That was mostly because she had books that she still hadn't returned from a senior project in her old high school English course, and didn't want to either go to jail for keeping the books insanely long or pay her life savings in overdue fees. She didn't like the library at GVSU, either, because she didn't like to do research that required her to put her heads in old newspaper stacks or other various boring books. But here she was, in Balamb Garden's library, and looking through the many bookshelves at anything that would catch her eye.

Scanning everything aimlessly, Gina decided on an interesting title called _Sorceress Sanctum_. She opened the book and found out that it was a collection of theories, myths, and half proven facts about the origin of sorceress powers and anything else dealing with them. She sat down at a nearby table and laid the book out in front of her, wondering just what the book said that she didn't already know from the FFVIII universe. She barely got a few pages into it before a stiff vibration rocketed through the room, knocking some magazine stacks over and causing everyone to stagger briefly before looking around in confusion. Shortly thereafter, there was an announcement over the intercom for Squall to report to the bridge, and Gina's eyes lit up as she left the book on the table and skipped out.

Moments later, she appeared in what used to be Cid's office, where she found Zell, Quistis, and Ravi already waiting. After waving, the lift to the bridge lowered, and Squall stepped off of the platform.

"So... what's up?" Zell asked.

"Looks like we've drifted right into Fisherman's Horizon." Squall answered. "We're to look around the town, and apologize on behalf of Garden for whatever damages we may have caused."

"It's okay. They love fixing stuff, anyway." Gina gleefully said. "The biggest thing they don't like is anything related to violence, so just be careful of that." With that, she flounced off towards the elevator, wanting to get out there. Squall just blinked and put a hand to his forehead. _Don't ask. Just get used to her somehow knowing these things._

"Man, and they call me know-it-all Zell." The martial artist looked over at Gina while waiting for Squall to finish the formalities with the people who came to greet them from the second floor deck. "What else do you know about FH?"

She furrowed her brow, trying to remember details from the game. "Basically, this is a place for people wanting to start over. All sorts of people come here to escape from whatever trials and tribulations they once had, and focus solely on a peaceful existence. But, uh..." Gina pointed out towards the ring of blue panels surrounding the platform which the Mayor's house stood on. "I never did know what all of those things were for."

"Solar panels." A voice spoke up behind her. Gina and Zell turned to see one of the guys who operated the lift walking towards them. "This whole little town runs on the rays of the sun. You get to see em up close soon enough though, since the other two that were with you are on their way to see Mayor Dobe. I was just on my way to start up the lift for them."

After taking a compliment from the guy on her cute moomba, Gina caught up with Quistis and Squall and got on the lift. She smiled brightly at her surroundings, and breathed in the fresh sea air as seagulls flew overhead.

"You seem really excited to be here." Quistis noted.

Gina blushed and shrugged. "Well, I was kinda thinking about how peaceful it would be to live here. Of course, I'm still not a big fan of fishing, but I think the town is cool." This wasn't the real reason she was so happy to finally be there, but she'd let them find out on their own.

The group made their way down the long ramp to the Mayor's House, and sat their through the brief meeting in which Mayor Dobe and his seemingly young blonde wife Flo were pretty blunt in making it clear that they did not want SeeDs running around in FH for too long. But thankfully, nobody asked any questions, and left the house to return to Garden to ask Headmaster Cid if it was alright to let some people in to do repairs.

"Man, that old geezer pissed me off!" Zell muttered, walking back up the ramp. "Acting all rude... why didn't you tell him off, Squall?"

The leader just shrugged as if it was a lost cause. "Forget it. You can't expect everyone to welcome us."

"He must have his reasons for wanting us out so badly." Quistis put in. "We should just be grateful for the time being that he's willing to help us get back on our feet."

Zell shrugged in response to that, still ruffled by the damn near lack of hospitality the mayor had shown them. Ravi seemed to sense he was upset, and jumped up on his shoulders and batted at his head to try to get him to feel better. It appeared to work, as Zell was grinning and giving the moomba high fives. Everything was going to be okay.

Until a panicked civilian came running towards the group, yelling something about Galbadian soldiers.

"What? Here too?" Squall tried to calm the woman down long enough to find out where exactly they were coming from, and everyone readied their weapons and prepared to head out, when a frenzied Flo ran up the ramp to yell at them.

"IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT THAT THEY'RE HERE! You'd better take care of it!"

"Aw, hold up! How the hell is it automatically OUR fault? For all you know, they could just be here to cause havoc like they've been doing for the past couple of years!" Zell retorted.

"This is why we wanted you all out of here! All you SeeD people do is incite violence and destruction!" Flo continued raving, pointing an accusing finger at Squall. "You can't solve anything without fighting, isn't that right?"

"No, wait..." Quistis tried to intercept any more arguments.

"It's true, they can't." Mayor Dobe's voice came into play as he topped the ramp. "Leave this to me. I'll try to reason with them." He started to walk down the railroad tracks towards town.

Squall stared at him incredulously, and Gina frankly had enough of all of this. "If you meet with them, you are as good as dead." She called out firmly to his retreating figure. "Not everything can be solved by a simple discussion; people just aren't always as rational as they should be."

Flo just huffed. "It still doesn't change the fact that your presence is the reason why the soldiers are here."

"Oh, stop your fussing already! Here I am, trying to save your husband's ass from being killed, and you're busy being the perfect example of irrationality! The world doesn't come to an end just because SeeD exists, okay? If you really MUST know, then they're not here because of us, they're here for Ellone!" Gina blurted out, then covered her mouth when she realized what she said in her frustration. _Oh SHIT! I didn't mean to say THAT much! Flo just pissed me off so much because she reminds me of Tiffany, and... _She didn't dare look over at Squall, even though she could feel his eyes boring holes into her skin, wanting to know just how in the world she knew about Ellone.

Flo blinked at Gina, since she didn't know what the heck was going on, then just pursed her lips. "Well anyway, you'd better go take care of it, like I said." She turned and walked back down to her house.

"Um... excuse me... but are we going to go at least attempt to save the Mayor?" Quistis broke the uncomfortable silence, her eyes drifting from Gina to Squall and back again.

"Tch, if he gets beat down, then it's not our fault." Zell spat out stubbornly, then heaved a big sigh. "Damn, it kills me to help that old fart, but I'd never forgive myself if I didn't. Let's go!" He started running down the railroad tracks, and Ravi started to follow but turned back to Gina with a hopeful look on its face.

She coughed a bit and cleared her throat, feeling her face heat up for her previous blunder. "Uh, yeah. Let's get down there!" Gina followed Zell rather quickly, still not able to look at Squall.

* * *

"Tell us, where is she? I'm not going to ask again!" A rather rough Galbadian Soldier shook the frail Mayor Dobe in frustration.

"I told you, I don't know of anybody here by the name of Ellone!" He protested, trying to pry the soldier's grip off of the front of his shirt. "So I beg of you, just leave us in peace!"

The soldier just laughed. "Well, even if she isn't here, I have orders from the sorceress herself to torch this place to the ground. So kiss your sorry little town goodbye!"

"Not so fast." Squall jumped down from the little ramp he and the others were standing on. Gina and Zell walked to stand on either side of him, while Quistis snapped her whip in warning.

"Just who are these idiots?" The Galbadian soldier asked, clearly irritated for being interrupted in his interrogation.

"We're SeeDs, and we're here to kick your sorry asses out of FH!" Zell cracked his knuckles.

"Oh really? We'll just see about that. The Ironclad will take care of you!" He pulled out a remote control and pressed a few buttons, and a mangled, but still dangerous looking large machine jumped down from the railroad tracks in the distance and landed with a clattering thump in front of the group, steam erupting from the edges.

"What... in the world... is that?" Quistis stared at the hulking piece of metal, partly in awe and in disbelief that this thing was even held together, as it looked like it had been through a war and back.

"Uh, I don't think I can punch it..." Zell eyed it warily.

"Just use GFs for this. A good thunder strike from Quezacoatl should take it down." Squall lowered his gunblade and prepared to summon.

"WAAIIT! DON'T BLOW IT UP!" Gina wailed out, then turned to the Galbadian soldier who was messing with the remote control, trying to make the machine attack them. "Open it up!"

Everyone, including Mayor Dobe, stared at her incredulously.

"It's not responding to the controls..." The soldier muttered, oblivious to Gina's previous demands. "What the hell is going on..."

Reaching behind her back, Gina pulled her katana out of the sheath and pointed it at him, drawing his full attention this time. "Did you hear me! Open!"

"Open what! The Ironclad? I can't even make it respond, so what makes you think I'm going to be able to open it?" Then he narrowed his eyes. "Not like a little SeeD would get me to do it even if I could, anyway."

Gina let out a dark chuckle. "As you wish. RAVI!" She walked off towards the machine as a moomba, determined to take down the man that had ticked off his owner, launched itself at his face and proceeded to beat him down with its sharp claws, letting out constant growls.

"AHHHHHHH! GET THIS ESTRANGED MONSTER OFFA ME!" The once cocky Galbadian soldier fell to the ground, with Ravi keeping up a constant assault.

Gina tsk tsked, circling the machine carefully. "Ravi doesn't take too well to people who call his kind monsters. He's really gonna hand it to you, now."

Meanwhile, everyone else was stuck between laughing or continuing to stare in a frozen stupor at the scene that was unfolding.

"Gina, what are you doin'!" Zell called out, quickly getting shushed by the girl who had placed an ear to the side of the machine.

"SHHHH! I'm listening for a sign..." She vaguely replied, trying to stand as still as possible.

Squall and Quistis exchanged glances. Now they seriously were wondering if she was mentally stable. They looked back at Ravi still tattering the poor soldier, then saw Gina try to yank an apparent door open to no avail.

"DAMN! It's melded shut from the explosion!" She cursed out loud, and tried to wedge her sword between faint cracks that used to be the doorway. She yelped in surprise as the katana simply broke off on contact and half of it went flying into the sea. _Oh shit... Jenkson's gonna kill me... I guess if this thing was strong enough to survive the missile base explosion, then prying it open with my flimsy sword wasn't going to do much good. Smart move, Regina... now think of something else._

Squall blinked repeatedly when he saw Gina's sword fly apart, and took that as a sign to just pull her away from the damn thing already. "Gina... I think it's time we just..."

"NO WAIT! I HAVE AN IDEA!" Gina brightened, and stood back a couple of feet while calling out to the machine, "WATCH OUT YOU GUYS, I'M GONNA BLAST IT OPEN!" She concentrated a middle level fire spell, and aimed it at the door. It barely singed it. Gina frowned in frustration.

"... Gina..." Squall tried again.

She threw a Firaga spell at it.

"... Regina..."

She threw a Flare spell at it.

"REGINA STEWART!"

Gina jumped at her full name, and turned to look at Squall as if she just realized he was standing there. "What... what did I do wrong? Maybe I'm just using wrong elemental types? I would use a Meltdown, but I don't want to burn through the whole thing..." She immersed herself in her own world once again, and Squall thought he was going to tear his hair out.

Suddenly, the door to the machine flew off of the side, and everyone's mouth dropped open to see Sharon step out, clearly exhausted. "Damn... whatever you threw at it loosened it up enough so I could kick the damn thing off." She brushed herself off and cheesed at everyone. "Honey, I'm home!"


	37. Chapter 37

**A/N:** So, you see what had happened was... I was going to update BEFORE I left Shanghai to Tibet for a week, but the Internet Cafe outside of the university was being a bitch and I couldn't do anything. Not only that, but when it finally DID work, there was this Chinese dude sitting a couple of computers away from me and he smoked - get this - **14** cigarettes in the span of an hour. AND he dumped all of his ashes and cigarette butts on the floor right around his seat. What. The. Fuck. I was so fucking pissed. I swear, if I get lung cancer from that asshole because he was smoking more than a coal power plant on the hottest day of the year then I will have no choice but to blow up China. God. It's true that 90 percent of Chinese people smoke, so beware of your lungs if you ever decide to come to a place like Shanghai.

But Tibet was cool! The weather was actually really temperate and it was VERY beautiful, but the altitude was a bitch. The minute the airplane cabin depressurized at the airport, this dude blacked out in front of me and fell. It took me a minute to realize what had happened. And I was feeling really dizzy for the first couple of days. But Lhasa was 2100 meters above sea level, and two other cities we went to (Shigatse and Gyantse) were 6000 meters above sea level. Yeah. Trippy, huh? But let's get to the fanfiction.

* * *

"YAY!" Selphie bounded out next, and wasted no time running at Gina and glomping her, almost sending the poor girl to the ground. "GINA SAVED US AGAIN!"

Sharon nodded. "Hell yeah. If she hadn't said anything, then Squall's GF-summoning ass would've blown us all to kingdom come." She said jestingly, smirking at him.

Squall rolled his eyes. He was very relieved to find that they were all okay, and thanked whatever stroke of luck they had to meet up with them at FH of all places. But just how was he supposed to know that the three of them had been locked up in that thing?

Zell, as if reading his thoughts, poked him in the side. "See? NOW do you believe me? I TOLD you Gina was psychic! You can't deny it now!"

The young SeeD in black put a hand to his forehead wordlessly. _Not this again. Are they trying to drive me insane? _"... Whatever."

"There you go again, with that 'whatever'." Irvine spoke up, being the last to exit the smoldering machine, dusting off his cowboy hat. "I think it's your way of welcoming us back."

Quistis giggled. "Of course. I know you weren't expecting something more. By the way, what happened?"

"Oh, we blew up the base and everything with no problem." Selphie explained. "But we were locked in! So last minute we jumped into that machine that the soldiers had sent out after us, and it happened to save us! But, uh..."

"We couldn't get out. Turns out the heat from the explosion melded the door shut." The cowboy flashed a grin. "But, I wasn't complaining. I got to spend it all with two lovely ladies."

Sharon stopped hugging Gina to roll her eyes at that statement. "For the rest of us, it was hell. Right now, I would like nothing more than a nice, hot shower and to crash in my quaint little bed for about 5 days straight."

Selphie looked around. "Wait... what happened to Garden... it's safe, right?" For a moment, her eyes got a trace of fear in them, that Squall would tell her the reason why they were at FH was because the missiles that were launched last minute actually did hit their target and they had no place to go.

Squall nodded. "A lot has happened since then, but Balamb Garden is pretty much safe. Why don't we all go back now where everything can be explained thoroughly, and I can finally give the Headmaster a full report."

Sharon literally skipped with the group back to Garden. She was so happy to be reunited with Gina, and to be out of that cramped metal tin can. She laughed and joked like everything was normal (or as normal as things could be) with her best friend, once again drawing many weird looks from everyone because they were using way too many inside jokes that didn't seem connected at all and made entirely no sense to prying ears.

"So THIS is why you're called 'Da Hypaa'?" Quistis noted of Sharon's bouncy behavior. She was beginning to think that hanging around Selphie for so long caused her nature to rub off.

Sharon blinked at that comment, and shrugged with a grin. "Well, yeah. I'm usually almost always like this... but uh, I guess you guys haven't really seen my full potential until now, huh?"

"Usually you're spending all of your boundless energy yelling at me." Irvine smirked.

"Well, that's just because you suck, and if nobody else is going to tell you, then I guess I have to."

"Your generosity is a little backwards... but it's still cute."

"And you're still a first-class dumbass."

"DUMBASS!" Ravi piped up out of the blue, happy in its own accomplishment of learning a new word. Zell burst out laughing at that, even causing Quistis to muffle impending giggles, and Gina shook her head. She really didn't know what to think of her moomba now being able to use curse words.

Once inside the Garden, everyone pretty much went their separate ways. Squall went directly to Cid's office to deliver the long report he was finally able to give. Selphie and Irvine wandered off to the quad to survey what they could possibly do for the homecoming festival, if anything. Quistis retreated to her familiar classroom, wanting to get caught up all the papers she neglected to check since she'd taken a kind of impromptu vacation. Zell and his new running buddy Ravi went to the cafeteria to stake out the last of the hot dogs, and Sharon and Gina went back to their dorm, Sharon finally being able to take the long shower she'd been raving about.

"Dude... I wonder what's going to happen now?' Gina mused, tipping back and forth in a wooden chair. "If there's gonna be any type of battles coming up, I think I'd better go and explain to Jenkson just why my katana is broken in half in hopes that he'll give me a new one."

Sharon waved unconcernedly, pulling a comb through her hair. "Oh, you know he won't sweat it. He's cool like that. Besides, I think what's up next on the Final Fantasy VIII chain of events is the Homecoming Festival, which should be fun." She widened her eyes and slammed the comb down on the table. "SHIT! I gotta meet with Selphie so we can work this whole thing out!"

Gina scratched her head. "I don't think you'd have to worry about it not being put on. Remember Irvine and Selphie sort through the sheet music and.." She was cut off by her best friend shaking her head vehemently.

"No no no... I'm talking about the Homecoming Festival that's gonna kick all ass. The one that _I_ am also in charge of." Sharon grinned, a mischievous glint in her brown eyes.

Gina recognized that look. "Oh, lord. What in the world are you planning? A SeeD rave party?"

Sharon lit up. "EXACTLY! Damn, you're intuitive."

"I was kidding! How in the hell are you gonna pull something like that off?"

"Oh, did I forget to mention..." Sharon bent down and pulled out her backpack purse that was still overstuffed with her personal music CDs. "... that in this universe they have the perfect equipment for playing our compact discs?"

Gina just stared, and immediately images of mega bass speakers set up around FH that were blaring out the bouncy beats of Happy 2b Hardcore, with Sharon standing happily in the middle of it all, her fingers twirling glowsticks rapidly. "... I don't know if FH... no wait, scratch that... I don't know if the Final Fantasy universe is ready for that kind of celebration..."

Sharon just responded with a loud cackle, complete with the tilting back of the head and the flourish of an arm. "No worries, my child. They have until tonight." With that, she flounced of the dorm room, leaving a slightly worried Gina behind.

* * *

The hyper girl got to the quad in record time, and threw down her little bag of treats amidst all of the rubble. "Lo and behold, Sharii to the rescue!"

Selphie tried to flash Sharon one of her usual happy-go-lucky smiles, but she was too upset over the damage that was done to the quad. "You know... I really wanted to hold a band here... I had my eyes set on a few people, too. Oh well..." She sighed heavily, causing Sharon to almost fall over in shock with the amount of angst the tiny little girl could let out when she put her mind to it.

"Oh! All is not lost! Chin up; you're usually really good at doing that, right?" Sharon gave Selphie a little hug. "We can still pull this off!"

"But... we're the only two people on the WHOLE committee."

"Uh... yeah, so we are. BUT... I am not giving up, and neither should you."

"... and the sheet music for the two compositions Trabia gave me are all mixed up."

Sharon blew a strand of hair off of her forehead in exasperation. This was not going to deter her from her brilliant plan so easily. "Girl! Now, I know I usually have a knack of pointing out the things that could go wrong in almost every situation, but this is getting just a little bit too pessimistic. You will have your festival, you will have your band, and I'll have you know that those sheets of music can be discarded in the process."

Selphie looked up to her as if she held the one small sliver of hope in the world. "You really think so?"

Sharon flashed her brightest smile. "Oh, I KNOW so. I promised you that we'd blow the roof off of this place when we first met, remember?" She scanned the quad and her brow furrowed slightly. "By the way... where's the bitchface?"

"Who, Irvine?" Selphie shrugged. "He came here with me to help sort out this mess, but he said he had something to do in FH and he'd be back as soon as possible."

_Good. If he's doing what I think he's doing and talking to the FH technicians to help build a new stage for the whole thing, then he'll earn cool points with Selphie and we can get this fantastic show on the road. _"Psht, I'll go get him. You stay here and round Squall, Zell, Quistis, and G-fuu up, and tell them to meet down at that place where the Mayor's House is in FH. If Squall does his little Prince of Angst thing, then force him to come, anyway. We have a show to put on." She gave a little wink and picked up her backpack purse while running off towards the 2nd floor balcony.

Selphie just stood by herself in the rubble of equipment, her head slightly spinning over just what Sharon had up her sleeve to make this whole festival a success. She let out one of her usual bright smiles and started on her way to collect everyone like she was told, when an announcement blared over the PA system made her pause.

"This is Headmaster Cid. I have an announcement to make. I have important news that I must share with all of you..."

* * *

Meanwhile, Sharon was just getting off of the lift, and scouring the area for the Galbadian cowboy. _What the fuck... I really don't feel like treading all over this place looking for him, but if I have to... _She began walking down the desolate looking railroad tracks towards town, and sighed with relief when she saw the person she was looking for several yards in front of her.

She started to walk up and distract him with a usual smartassed comment, but she came to a halt when she realized he wasn't alone. The person whom he was with was none other than Headmaster Martine, and they looked deep in a conversation... well, she didn't know if it really WAS a conversation. Even though his back was to her, Sharon saw that Irvine was standing like she does whenever she gets bitched at by her mother. _Shit... I forgot his ass was here... this can't be a very happy reunion. _Part of her wanted to stay and try to eavesdrop on the exchange between the two, but she also didn't want to risk getting too close just to find out what was going on. She could hear Martine's voice, but nothing could really be deciphered unless she was right there next to him. Biting her fingernails nervously, Sharon swallowed and turned around slowly, deciding it was best to go back and wait in an inconspicuous location for them to finish.

Until her ears caught a sound that made her heart stop and her stomach plummet to the ground.

Irvine Kinneas bit his lip and averted his gaze anywhere than his former Headmaster, which was much easier considering his face was now tilted to one side. His left cheek stung painfully, but other than the fact he couldn't fight inertia, he gave no indication that it hurt him in the least. That was regrettably not the first time Martine had slapped him, so one could say he was used to the abuse by now. Memories that he desperately wanted to forget threatened to surface, but he swallowed them down for now. If he showed any kind of weakness at that point in time, it would just be what the headmaster wanted.

"Aim. And. Shoot. Goddamnit, boy, how many times have I told you!" Martine seethed, and actually paused for a reply from his ex-pupil. When he got none, he wasn't surprised, but it just served to fuel his anger more. "Defiant to the bitter end, aren't you? I hope you know that your complete and utter FAILURE to follow SIMPLE orders caused the downfall of Galbadia Garden. All my aspirations and dreams... all GONE! You do not know the utter SHAME and HUMILIATION I have gone through... all because of you." He took a step towards Irvine, looking like he was going to continue to slap his pain and frustration into his brain if need be.

"Step. The fuck. Off of him."

Both Martine and Irvine looked over to see Sharon standing a few feet away, glaring unblinkingly at the elder of the two men.

"Need I reiterate my demand? Or are you deaf? Do it. _NOW." _Her jaw tightened considerably, and her hands were balled up so tight that her knuckles were bleach white. Every so often, her body would twitch slightly, and she took a couple of more steps towards them. Martine raised an eyebrow and didn't move back, but he didn't exactly move forward, either.

Irvine just stared, the pain on his face dulling to a low throb. He, more than anybody, had seen Sharon angry... but not THIS angry. He could almost feel the vibes of blatant dislike, most possibly teetering on the brink of utter hatred coming off of the slender girl, and if one wasn't smart enough to catch that, with every word passed from her lips spoke volumes.

For the first time in his entire life under the rule of Galbadia Garden, he felt sorry for Headmaster Martine.

"Is that how you treat your SeeDs? Slapping them around the moment they stop becoming robots and show slivers of humanity? Why... in the FUCK... do you blame Kinneas for the shit you brought on YOUR OWN DAMN SELF! His failure, was in turn YOUR failure, so don't SIT up here acting better than him when you yourself are no better than the drops of SHIT FROM A CHOCOBO'S ASS!" Sharon still didn't blink, but the shaking had become more visible as she was forcing herself to keep her arms to her sides and not all over the person who claimed to be a headmaster of a garden.

"For your GODDAMN FUCKING INFORMATION, he made a PERFECT SHOT that night in Deling. If his target hadn't have been a sorceress, then the bullet would have pierced her brain and it would have been done. But who's fault was that, huh? Maybe it's the IDIOT that thought a single bullet would take down a FUCKING ALL POWERFUL SORCERESS!" She tried to lower her voice, knowing that the citizens of FH would certainly kick them all out of their town if they found out she was yelling like this. "He fought... against every single humane bone in his body... to fire that shot. I saw him. You... have no right... to talk about complex emotions such as shame and humiliation. You don't know what it's like to have that much pressure on you at one time... to know that everything you've ever learned that was right in your whole lifetime is screaming at you to stop... but to know that if you don't, then someone will forever be around to knock the last bit of sanity and pride you're clinging onto." Tears were streaming down her face at this time, but she didn't move to wipe them away. "IT'S YOUR FUCKING FAULT! IT'S YOUR FUCKING FAULT THAT HE'S THE WAY HE IS! I HATE PEOPLE LIKE YOU, WHO COULD GO THEIR WHOLE DAMN LIFE NOT KNOWING HOW TRAUMATIZING THEY'RE BEING TO INNOCENT MINDS, AND PROBABLY WOULDN'T CARE LESS IF YOU DID KNOW! And you'd better thank God or Hyne or whatever the fuck you people worship around here that I do NOT have my pistols on me right now, because I wouldn't hesitate to pop some caps into your thick skull, even though I truly believe that death is too good for you."

A silence lapsed after that long speech that seemed to spread through the entire town. The birds even seemed to stop chirping, the wind ceasing to blow.

"If you meant everything you just spurted like the raving lunatic you obviously are, then you'd be accomplishing something Kinneas has never been able to do." With those words, Martine turned and walked away briskly, heading for town.

Sharon stared at his retreating figure for agonizing moments longer, and blinked for the first time since the whole confrontation started. She unclenched her hands from the fists, feeling the bones crack back into a relaxed position, but now it was more aware than ever that she was shaking like a crack addict going through severe withdrawals. She breathed in a couple of equally shaky breaths, and finally turned around to face Irvine, whom she almost forgot was standing there with her.

"Are you okay?"

"Why do you care?"

She supposed she should've taken the question that came back in response as a type of insult... in normal situations she probably would have. But this time, she was feeling way too drained to do anything else but tell him the truth.

"I've undergone my share of psychological pressure. Of course, it wasn't about sharpshooting, and the people who fucked me over didn't physically slap me around... but sometimes I wish that they would have. Physical wounds eventually heal; mental ones don't." Sharon chuckled a little bit, as she was used to doing whenever situations got too heavy. "Maybe that's why I snapped when I saw Martine hit you. It gave me the chance to tell him off for what I knew he did to you. I saw the effects way before the events at Deling... just didn't know the culprit... until now."

Irvine just continued to stare. This certainly wasn't something he was expecting... in fact, the whole day wasn't. Sharon was the last person he would have expected to come to his rescue, and then admit to going through similar tribulations. She seemed pretty normal... despite her explosive temper and her off-the-wall sense of humor, but was still all around the confident person he had always wanted to become, but never achieved due to fears he thought he had brought on himself.

Sharon caught the look he was giving her and let out another dry laugh. "Oh, please. Don't look at me like I'm God or something. Believe me, I'm at no higher level than you, if even that. You hide behind your mask, and you've seen mine. You see... even though I joke around, yell at you, act invincible, and open my mouth to give just about anybody a piece of my mind... the truth is... all the words I've said to Martine... I've never been able to say on my own behalf." She felt her hands start to shake again, and she clasped them behind her back in an effort to hide them. "In my mind, I've rehearsed my lines over and over. I even get myself fueled up, because they not only fucked over my psyche, but Gina's as well. We don't let it get to us that much anymore unless something comes up that reminds us of what we went through a couple of years ago, so unless you knew us way back then you wouldn't think we experienced any kind of trauma. But... right at the point where I have my shot... I miss. Again and again. I'm right back down at the bottom so fast, it's a far off wish that I was ever somewhat near the top at all. And it's nobody's fault but mine..."

Sharon's voice had been breaking up constantly through her little confession, and finally she just brought her hands up to her face and cried. She bawled even harder when she realized that she just broke down in front of her arch nemesis, of all people. _Oh lord... what did I just do? Nobody knows this or has seen me cry except for G-fuu..._

She didn't push away when she felt a pair of arms encircle her and hold her close, even though she knew who it was. She was too far gone, anyway. She just continued to cry until it subsided to short hiccups, and she waited until her breathing patterns relatively returned to normal before gently moving away. _Time to rebound_. Then it really hit her just who she'd not only succeeded in standing up for, crying in front of, then crying ON.

_Oh my god. This is THE most humiliating situation EVAR. _"Ah.. well..." Sharon tried to nonchalantly brush the remaining tears off of her face. "I... uh... probably look like shit."

Irvine shrugged just as nonchalantly, and pointed to the side of his face. "Well, if you think YOU look like shit, then I don't even wanna know what I look like."

Both of them stared at each other for a couple of seconds, then burst out laughing. Real laughter that both of them desperately needed after the whole dramatic escapade. They probably would've kept laughing like a pack of hyenas until Sharon gasped and remembered why she had come down there looking for him in the first place.

"Oh shit! I promised Selphie that we would meet her at the Mayor's House soon! Damn damn DAMN! We gotta book, but I look like I just got run over by the angst train, and you look like a REAL train ran you over, and and and..."

Irvine shushed her oncoming panic attack. "Just calm down. Look, we can go to the Inn and get cleaned up, and be back before anyone would have a chance to see us."

Sharon nodded. "Yes... yes... good idea. Let's go." Together, they started walking off towards town, when she suddenly stopped and turned towards Irvine.

"Just to let you know, this by ALL MEANS doesn't mean I've stopped hating you."

* * *

**Yae:** You're from West Michigan? Wow! Where at? If you're from the Grand Rapids area then I'm sure you know where GVSU is... but maybe you're near Kalamazoo or something like that. But at any rate, it's great that someone from Michigan is reading this fiction, so they have a better idea of the areas that I described in the first part of the fiction and so forth. Glad you enjoy it so far! Oh, and I LOVE Skittles. Original Fruit Skittles. -mouth waters-

**Mudora:** I'll be back in the U.S. in like... 5 days now. It's really kind of depressing, since I've grown attached to Shanghai and the people and all the things that go on here (minus the stupid smokers and the mosquitoes), but I will actually be back in China come 2007. I promised a lot of people that I would, so I can't break that promise, now can I? LOL

**GurassuShinzo:** I try to update two chapters at a time. I'm lucky that writers block or time constraints haven't really dulled anything yet, but it's getting to that point where I'm getting too excited to write that much and I'm kicking my own ass to get myself to calm down so I can write decent chapters, ya know? But glad you like it thus far. :D

**QueenAdreena:** Oh, I so totally feel you about hot weather here in China. It's been so hot that I will NEVER complain about U.S. summers EVER again. My skin is also like... 284634 shades darker than what it usually is. My watch tan is so horrible, hehe! Oh, and I saw the next worst thing outside of the back gate on the way to the internet lab: a big swarm cloud of cicadas flying around in the air. They were each as big as my hand. God, I was terrified. x.x;

**Silverpaws:** Yep, I just updated like... now. Sorry to leave you and all the readers hanging, got tied up here in China/Tibet. When I get back to the U.S. I should be more frequent with my updates. Hopefully. x.x;


	38. Chapter 38

**A/N:** Oh yeah. _Very_ important announcement. You all know ff dot net's policy against song lyrics in fanfiction, right? I think it mostly applies to songfics or whatever, but I figured I would let you all know about something anyway. In the next couple of chapters, I plan to have snippets of song lyrics in the fanfiction. You all know that this isn't a songfic, and you all DEFINITELY know that I'm not trying to rob any musical artists of their money (as I doubt I will anyway). But I feel like I'd be missing a lot of the intended feeling if I didn't have the lyrics in there just for the upcoming two chapters, and I really don't want to edit my work just because ff dot net is anal. But the only thing is, they would delete my story if they found out.

Well. Let's just hope they don't find out, shall we? -winks-

* * *

Squall walked slowly down the ramp leading down to the Mayor's House, lost in his own thoughts as usual. His head was still reeling over Headmaster Cid's latest announcement; to the whole Garden, no less. Maybe he would've felt a little better about it if everyone didn't hear about his apparent promotion the same time he did.

And maybe it would've helped if he had a choice in the matter.

And maybe if the Headmaster didn't lay everything on him like it was decided since his birth.

But, at least now Squall knew what the true meaning of SeeD was, and why the Sorceress was trying to blow up all of the gardens. Oh yeah, and the whole thing about Edea being Cid's wife as well. All he really wanted to do was hole himself up back in his room and try to sort out all of this mumbo-jumbo so it made more sense... but in a way, he knew he would only be calling forth more questions that wouldn't have answers. Like why the White SeeD were somehow connected to Edea, and why Ellone was taking him back to the past to somehow always, unfailingly, be in the body of what Squall considered to be the biggest idiot on the face of this planet.

_It seems as though everything is connected, but in the weirdest way possible,_ Squall mused, seeing the figures of everyone already at the designated spot further ahead. Selphie caught sight of him first and waved frantically for him to hurry up, and Gina scratched her head and looked away kind of nervously. _Not to mention Gina's avoiding me... she's probably freaked out because of what she said about Ellone... _Honestly, he wanted to find out just how Gina knew about her, and possibly everything else that no normal human being should know, especially about a universe he knew she should be a complete stranger to. The whole psychic thing Zell and Selphie are so adamant about pushing didn't, and would never really float with a realist like Squall. But what could he do about it now besides add it to the ever growing book of weirdass occurrences for sorting later?

"LET'S GIVE IT UP FOR THE COMMANDER OF BALAMB GARDEN, OUR VERY OWN SQUALL LEONHART!" Sharon's voice boomed loudly over a pair of speakers set next to what looked like a half-finished stage. Squall almost died, especially when all of them started clapping like it's some sort of accomplishment. _What the hell? MUST everyone within a 5 mile radius know my business?_

"Don't call me that." Squall replied curtly, folding his arms.

"Oh, come on. We needed a title for you, and Commander seems to be the perfect choice." Quistis said with a smile. "Everyone's depending on you now, so you need a big name to match."

_Please... do NOT remind me._ "Whatever. What are we here for, anyway?"

"I was hoping you'd ask that!" Selphie bounced in front of everyone with a big smile, a contrast to the sullen face she had earlier. "Well, you remember about the Homecoming Festival, right?"

Everyone responded with a nod.

"Since I'm the head of the committee, I've decided to put it on anyway! Instead of it being in the quad like I guess it should be, it'll be held here in FH, since Irvine was so nice to ask them to build us a brand new stage!" Selphie smiled at him gratefully, and Irvine responded with a wink and a tip of his cowboy hat. "But I want it to be really great, especially since it's a kind of coronation for our new commander... and I know it's kinda tough to do that, with everything going on."

"So... what's this have to do with us?" Zell asked, sitting down on the ground cross-legged.

"Let me handle that one, Selph." Sharon dragged over some type of equipment and pulled the mic out of a hole in the side. "I swear, sometimes you guys just don't know what you can do with this kind of stuff... oh, but anyways. I am going to introduce you all to the idea of a DJ... that is, a Disc Jockey. It sounds stupid, but if you want this party to be off the hook, then it will be your best friend. Luckily for you, I have the kickass beats to help this be a major success. Someone has to teach all of ya'll to party RIGHT."

"What's so wrong with our parties now?" Quistis inquired.

"Well... to put it bluntly... they're lame as hell. No offense, c'mon... you guys idea of parties consists of doing the waltz all night? Granted, you guys get to drink booze too, but SeeDs deserve to live life to the fullest." She pulled out her backpack purse and started fishing out stacks of CD cases. The SeeDs knew what CDs were and what they looked like, but they only used them for data keeping.

"So... there is music on these?" Selphie picked up many brightly colored CD cases and looked at them. "I've never heard of these people before..."

Gina coughed. "Yeah, uh... well... they're underground musicians." When everyone gave her a cross-eyed look, she tried to clarify without sounding too suspicious. "Meaning that they make music, but they're not widely known."

"Oh... I get it... so how did you guys get to know about them?"

Sharon and Gina exchanged a look. At least the guys of the group seemed to catch on that they were all popular artists and tunes from the world they really belonged to, but none of them had any more of an answer for Selphie's question than the other two did. An answer that wouldn't involve incriminating them all, that is.

"... SO ANYWAY... let's get started. I'll play you all some samples of different kinds of music so I can gauge your reactions and so forth." Sharon picked out a CD from random and put it in the player that was slightly altered so it could pick up the music patterns from the discs. "This is gonna be a bit of an adventure for both me and you, because I kinda forgot what was on this CD myself."

Everyone's reactions were interesting, to say the least. Some parts of the tracks that were played were somewhat similar to what they were used to, but all in all, almost everything incorporated melodies with instruments that they thought nobody would think of putting together... and making it work so well, nonetheless. Selphie seemed really receptive to techno, especially Happy 2b Hardcore, since whenever stuff like that came on she bounced around like a hyperactive bunny. Zell leaned towards anything rock, and Quistis couldn't help but bob her head to a couple of pop tunes. Irvine seemed to like almost everything that was played, and Squall was doing his usual thing of sitting unemotionally and not giving any indication that he liked anything.

"Now that you've all had a taste of exactly what a DJ is supposed to do and the kind of stuff expected to be played at tonight's festival, I want you all to listen to a particular track carefully."

Everyone tilted their heads to one side as they listened to a song of the alternative rock genre. Unlike the other songs like it, they were somewhat surprised that there were hints of a violin in the background, contrasting nicely with the furious beats of the drums and riffs of the electric guitars. It was very catchy, and when the song was over, everyone pretty much enjoyed the track all the same.

Sharon grinned. "I take it you all like 'Ocean Avenue' by Yellowcard, judging by your reactions. And I know you all are still wondering what you are doing here and why I forced you to listen to all of this crap. Well... for one, I did most of it just to see how you would react, two, because it's fun as hell to play DJ, and three because you all are going to play the song you just heard for the Homecoming festival."

There was brief silence as everyone processed what Sharon just said, and their expressions melted from amusement to utter disbelief when they finally comprehended. Squall took this as his own cue to get up and leave.

"Aw, what the... SQUALL, GET YO ANGSTY ASS BACK HERE!"

"Are you serious?" Zell blinked. "We're gonna actually do something like that?"

Quistis shook her head vehemently from side to side. "Oh, no. Count me out. I have absolutely no musical aptitude."

"Um... don't you have the music track right there anyway?" Irvine said. "Why do you need us to attempt to play it and mess it up? It's gonna be even harder with no sheet music to go by."

"Sharii-chan, you should know more than anybody else that I do NOT do crowds of people." Gina put in her two cents. _God, I KNEW I had a right to be worried when Sharon said she was gonna help handle this festival..._

Sharon frowned and stamped her foot. "NO EXCUSES! Excuses are like assholes; everyone has one, and they all fucking stink. I'm doing this because Selphie wanted a band, and I promised her that we'd have one." She looked over at Selphie, who nodded and grinned happily. "Of course, since this is going to be prime blackmail material... I mean... uh, an event to go down in history, Selphie's gonna tape it so you all can look back at how kickass you were. If it makes you feel better, I'm gonna be up there looking like a fool too, so no worries."

Everyone let out a sigh of defeat, since they knew against both Selphie and Sharon, they were not going to left alone until they agreed to do it.

"Well... I guess we should start by picking out who's going to do what." Gina said slowly.

"I can play the violin." Irvine spoke up, and got a whole bunch of incredulous looks from everyone else. "What? I know I don't really LOOK like the type to play that type of instrument, but I never said I could play it well. I picked it up for a little bit when I was younger."

"... well, I guess you ARE smarter than you look... but that's not saying much." Sharon cracked. "I call dibs on the drums."

Zell thought about it for a minute, then grinned. "Can I do the vocals? It's not really an instrument, but now I can see how much fun it would be to sing along."

"By all means. You kinda remind me of the lead singer of the group, anyway." Sharon ticked off her fingers. "So we have a violin, drummist, and the lead singer. I think all that's left is the bass and lead guitarists." She looked pointedly over at Gina, who was fascinated with how the ground was contoured at the moment. "Don't make me say it."

Gina sighed heavily. She knew she'd been practicing with the guitar and got a little bit better at it, but that didn't mean that she was ready to get up and bust a concert in front of what seemed to her to be the entire damn world. But, it seemed that there was no getting around it this time. "Okay, I'll do it." She said meekly.

"That's the spirit! Now just one more." Sharon eyeballed Quistis and Squall, who were the only two left. The instructor looked more into deep thought than trying to weasel out of it, and Squall wasn't even looking at the group, as he was facing the ramp which he WAS going to use to make his exit if Sharon hadn't called him out before he had the chance.

"If I may... I would like to opt out of this one." Quistis started, but before anyone had time to protest, she kept going. "Don't worry. In my own way, I believe it's going to help the festival be a success, but I would need time to prepare. Is that okay?"

Selphie and Sharon exchanged glances. They would've thought she was weaseling out of it, but the way her eyes seemed to show a faint hint of something mischievous made them think it over. Whatever she had planned, it was going to be a secret... and possibly worth the sacrifice. "Okay instructor! We'll be looking forward to whatever it is you've got in mind." Selphie turned to Squall. "Looks like you're up, commander!"

Squall's response was limited to a glare that clearly stated that there was no way in hell he was going to do something like that.

"If we're getting on your nerves, commander, then you should tell us." Sharon prodded, knowing full well that he wouldn't. "We're not mind readers. And besides, I've heard that guitar playing alleviates inner angst. So... it'll be perfect for you!" She grinned at her messed up logic.

"... you. Are crazy."

Sharon blinked. "Duh. Don't tell me that you just now figured THAT out, HA! Well, crazy bitch or not, all of us have work to do. Since you didn't refuse, I'll take that as a yes that you'll play the part. Let's start by fishing out those instruments from the quad, and bringing it down here so we can practice our asses off to the music track. Tonight is gonna RAWK!"

Everyone got to their feet and started to disperse. Selphie was the leader going back to the quad, and Quistis walked up to Sharon and started talking with her, probably about what she was planning to do. Nobody else could hear, but judging from Sharon's excited reaction, it had to be something good. Gina watched as Sharon fished out a particular CD from the stack and rushed off with the instructor. _Oh lord... what the hell is going on with those two? _Then she realized that she and Squall were the only two people who hadn't left the scene yet, and she started to panic when he walked up to her. _Oh no! He's gonna ask about Ellone... shit... shit shit..._

"Can I ask you something?" He started tentatively.

_NO! _"Sure." Gina said as casually as she could muster.

"How did you and Sharon get to be best friends? You two don't exactly strike me as being the kind to hit it off."

Gina stared for a moment, then stifled a sigh of relief. It certainly wasn't the kind of question she was expecting, but she was very grateful that he wasn't going to drill her for information. "Uh well... we kinda didn't, at first." She let out a giggle as she remembered the day she had first really met. "We had both just started high school, and the friend that we both had in common kinda had some issues and left early on in the school year. I was really shy and wary, and didn't want anyone to really get to know me in fear that they'd end up either hating me or hurting me." She sat down at the edge of the platform, her feet dangling over. "That's when Sharii came along.

"True, we had already kind of been acquainted before hand. Heck, I even later found out that we had attended the same middle school as well. But we never really talked to each other back then. But with both of us pretty much friendless, we didn't have an excuse NOT to this time around, I guess." Gina played with the embroidered dragon on the front of her hoodie. "But of course, Sharii made the first move. She nearly bowled me over in the middle of the hallway on the way to English class, desperately trying to strike up a conversation. I really don't think I helped her cause any. 'Just smile and nod', I kept telling myself."

_Yeah, I can so see Sharon scaring the crap out of her, too._ Squall almost found himself chuckling at the image he had conjured up in his head.

"But then she mentioned the magic phrase; Sailor Moon. After all of her attempts, a common interest made itself apparent. It's an anime, by the way. I was really surprised that someone else besides me liked the show, since by that age it was considered childish to watch 'cartoons'. She picked up on it right away, and before I knew it, she was shoving movies and tapes into my hands for me to take home and watch at my leisure." Gina looked up at the sky, a warm look on her face. "Boy, was I ever surprised. One, nobody EVER let me keep their stuff till whenever, especially after one day of just meeting. Two, she was pretty much the only person who called my house constantly. I never had a friend who had gone through all of that trouble, just for me. Even my parents were shocked." She turned to Squall. "After that, it was pretty much history."

Squall lifted an eyebrow. "So... you and Sharon became as close as you are... over anime?"

Gina blinked, and let out a round of laughter. "No, no. There's so much more to it than just that. Sure, Sailor Moon was the link that brought us together in the first place, but we were still as different as night and day. But... she started to grow on me. She helped me get used to being myself, and be a little bit more confident to say what was on my mind rather than to keep everything in like I was so used to doing. All of that happened without me realizing it... which was good, because I think that if I did, then I would've started freaking out." She laughed again. "But I think the event that brought us REALLY close was the church."

Squall wasn't sure if he liked the way she emphasized "the church". It seemed to hold a certain frame of meaning to her, but he couldn't imagine just what it could be. At the same time though, he didn't want to ask. He was surprised that she'd told him that much so easily in the first place, since if it was him, he would've just kept his thoughts to himself.

Gina paused for a moment, then continued. "I can't really tell you what exactly went on then. Not because I don't trust you... but... it's hard to explain, even to someone in our own world. Not only that, but I think I've repressed my memories of certain events that might be crucial to understanding. All I know is that they unknowingly used our fear of suffering in a place called hell for all eternity after death if we didn't believe in certain things their religion did. We didn't know that their beliefs would collide with our own so severely until it was too late and we were already knee-deep in some shit that we couldn't make sense of anything anymore. Using our high-school graduation and college as an excuse, we left the church and began the tedious task of de-brainwashing ourselves so that we learned to carry on with our lives. Even still, I guess you could say that we're still running, since neither of us has the guts to go back and tell them how much they've scarred us for life.

"But... we've learned a lot from that experience. Even though we both felt so hopelessly alone... we had each other, and it was only when we realized that we were able to pull free." The troubled look that was once on Gina's face slowly melted away. "I think... I think I'll always be grateful to the church for that. It helped us grow and realize things I don't think we would have if we hadn't been thrust into a traumatic experience. Ever since, Sharii-chan and I have always been there for each other, unwaveringly. I guess you could say that we're two of a kind." She smiled and looked back at Squall, and then looked a bit behind him to see Selphie running down the ramp and putting her hands on her small hips.

"You GUYYYSSS! We're supposed to be PRACTICING!"

Gina stood up and brushed off her pants. "I know, sorry about that. Got a little distracted for a minute there."

"Oooh, I'll bet." Selphie winked, causing Gina's face to start burning up.

"Okay well, we're on our way now. Let's go, Squall!" Gina hurried off before he could see her flushing face. But Squall was already in his own world, Gina's story putting him in a state of deep thought. _Gina seems to be okay with depending so heavily on someone else... I wonder if I could ever get over my own fears enough to do something like that... or do I have to trust someone first?_


	39. Chapter 39

**A/N:** So, I've been doing some thinking, and after stalling and brooding and all of that good stuff, I have decided that I don't care. I thank you for all who gave me advice, of course. :D But I am posting my fiction the way I see fit, and if ffdotnet has a problem with it, then they'll go ahead and delete it. Yeah, I'll lose all my wonderful reviews, but those can be re-posted, right? If they do delete it, I'll re-post the story without the lyrics and have these two chapters just be all funky. I decided this because the chapters just didn't even flow right without the lyrical elements in them, everyone knows I don't own the songs or the artist and I'm not making any profit off of anything, just as I don't own FFVIII. The way I see it, it's just as "wrong" to write fiction about characters you don't own as it is to put snippets of song lyrics you equally don't own in the said fiction.

* * *

"OOWWWW, SHIT!" Sharon jumped around on one foot, giving an accusing glare to one of the large speakers that had managed to tip over.

Gina shook her head and righted the heavy thing. "Sharii-chan, why don't you just stop trying to rearrange everything and sit down until the show gets started? You'll further injure yourself if you keep moving around..."

"But I can't!" Her best friend wailed in response. "I'm too wound up! This must go perfect! I have Selphie to thank for helping me out on everything, but I still have never done anything like this before and it MUST. GO. WITHOUT. HITCHES!" She waved frantically when she spotted the hyper martial artist weaving his way towards the stage. "YO! STATUS REPORT?"

Zell bounded up to the two girls and gave a trademark grin. "Well, everything's set up alright. We're gonna get a huge turnout tonight, that's for sure." He noticed Gina off to the side. "So, are ya hyped up yet, Gina?"

"Uh... yep." Gina gave a wavering grin and tried to keep her stomach from doing the flip-flops it all so loved to do whenever she encountered a pressure situation. The fact that Zell mentioned that they would be having a large crowd didn't help at all, either.

Sharon sensed her friend's nervousness and placed a hand on her shoulder for reassurance. "Don't worry, G-fuu. We'll all be up there on the stage with you." She looked around stressfully. "Speaking of which, where are they?"

Zell scratched his head. "Umm, Selphie's running around here doing last minute checks, but who knows where the professor and Squall are. Irvine's actually..."

"Right here." Irvine waited until Sharon turned around to tip his hat and wink, causing her to make a relatively convincing gagging noise and roll her eyes. "If you're looking for our favorite commander, I bet he's still wandering around Garden. You might have to go drag him out here, since he's looking like he's not going to come on his own."

Sharon felt her right eye twitch as it usually did when she was stressed out or angry. "Oh. Guess I will just have to teach him the hard way not to mess with me. If he thought he was embarrassed when I called him out earlier today... whoo boy..." She rolled up an imaginary sleeve and jumped off of the stage and stalked with a purpose towards the docked Garden.

Gina shook her head and turned to see Selphie dragging a gigantic box towards them, and stopped to sit on it while wiping a brow. "Phew. Hey, where did Sharon go? I wanted to ask her if she thought I brought enough of these flares."

Everyone blinked and backed up a couple of steps in shock. "Flares!" Gina sputtered. "What the hell does Sharii-chan need those for!"

Selphie shrugged good-naturedly and jumped off of the box. "I dunno. She just asked me to get them. We have a fairly wide variety of colors, so I just grabbed as many as I could." She opened a flap and dug out a flare. With a snap, she cracked it against her hand, and Gina almost ran away in brace for what she thought would be a blaze of sparks emitting from one end, but instead the stick just lit up very brightly in a vibrant shade of green.

"Uh... I think we have enough lights around here as it is. I don't think it would be right to just deplete our stock for an event like this." Zell said.

Gina stared a little bit at the flare, and she broke out into a grin. "Oh, I know what Sharii-chan probably wanted them for. Glowsticks, I would bet."

Irvine blinked. "Glowsticks?"

"Yeah. It may sound wacky, but back where we, uh... came from, people like Sharii who wear bright colors and like bouncy techno music gather together and have these things called "raves", which are really just huge dance parties with flashing strobe lights and continuous electronica. From what I hear, the lighting tends to be dim so that people can get the full effect of dancing with those colored sticks in each hand, making patterns and swirls of lights through the air."

"Oooh..." Selphie looked down at the flare in her hand and waved it through the air to test out Gina's theory. "Hey, this is pretty cool! No wonder she wanted me to hand some out to everyone who showed up! Imagine what this whole place if everyone who came was waving around one of these!"

"Probably like a pack of highlighters puked all over FH." Gina answered, then laughed at everyone's incredulous stares. "Believe me when I say that in Sharii's terms, it would be taken as a compliment."

* * *

Sharon placed her hands on her hips and tapped her foot, glancing from left to right impatiently. _Now, if I was an angsty commander, where would I hide?_ She had already gone to his room, but he was smart enough not to be there when she showed up. Sharon would give Squall props later. Looking at her watch and almost panicking at what time it was, she whirled around to bump right into Nero Jenkson.

"Whoa there, Gladden, you look like you're about to blow something up." He said good-naturedly.

She blew a strand of hair off of her forehead. "Not something, but SOMEONE. Balamb Garden is going to be short a commander if he doesn't show up to FH pretty damn soon."

"Oh yeah, you guys are pulling together that Homecoming festival, right? Well, I wouldn't worry about Leonhart. He's probably there already to avoid being dragged; he wouldn't want his pride being injured like that." Jenkson produced a katana from behind his back. "I was hoping I'd catch either you or Stewart around here, since I have her new sword here for her."

Sharon laughed. "I bet she was shaking like a leaf when she explained what happened to it, huh? Stuff like that just happens. Well... probably not EXACTLY like what happened with Gina, but you get my point." She took the sword. "I'll just put it in our dorm and run back out to FH. You should come out and see it too! It's gonna be HYPE!"

Jenkson shook his head with a tiny smirk on his face, watching as Sharon rushed back to place Gina's weapon in her room. Sharon had been right on the money about Gina showing up to his office looking like she expected him to exact some sort of punishment just because she broke her sword trying to save her friends. Granted, she should've figured out that most heavy duty military weapons are made entirely of adamantine, but he wasn't going to hold her to that. The only thing on her mind at that point was getting her friends out any way she could, and Jenkson admired her devotion.

"AAHH! WHAT THE FUCK? WHY DO YOU ALWAYS FOLLOW ME EVERYWHERE?"

"Not everywhere; I haven't followed you to the bathroom or the bedroom... yet."

"Oh, my god. Get the hell out of my face before I christen Gina's brand new katana with your blood."

"I just came to let you know that Squall is already at the stage, so you can stop looking for him. If this is the way you thank people, then I don't know how poor Gina has survived in your presence for so long."

Well, Jenkson WAS turning around to leave, but he found the situation that just erupted more amusing. Not to mention he was fully prepared to pry the weapon out of Sharon's hand just in case she really DID go through with her threats. He took a look at the guy who was her supposed stalker and noted that he never saw him around Balamb before. But the cowboy hat was a nice touch. _Reminds me of the one I used to have._

A strong wave of dejavu passed over him. He wasn't horribly close to the still quarreling duo, but he focused his eyes on the cowboy hat that was looking more and more like the one he hadn't seen since that fateful day. In his mind, Jenkson began to calculate the impossible odds that the only other person to own that hat could possibly be standing a mere couple of yards away from him. He couldn't see all of his features since he was facing away from him, and it began to get frustrating. Jenkson knew of one way he could find out the identity of this mystery person, and if he happened to be right, then maybe that small glimmer of hope that was still left in his soul could find peace.

Taking a long and semi-shaky breath, Jenkson walked up to the two still heavily engrossed in dogging each other out and let loose a name that hadn't been answered in four long years.

* * *

Gina nervously strummed a couple of chords out on her guitar, trying to distract herself from the ever growing crowd and anticipation. Just a couple of minutes until showtime, and the missing commander showed up shortly after Sharon left to drag him out of hiding. Of course, the cowboy took it upon himself to go and fetch her back, and neither of them had returned. Time was getting dangerously short.

"Still no sign of them? Geez, don't tell me they both got lost in Garden at the same time." Zell quipped.

Gina let out a sigh. "Most likely they got into it and have completely forgotten that we have a show to do." _Not that I really want to go through with this anyway. _She stopped musing when she saw a familiar figure making her way up and onto the stage. "Sharii-chan!" She got up and held her arms out for a hug that she so desperately needed to calm her nerves down, and felt pretty damn hoed when Sharon walked by her in a slow, dazed fashion, as if she saw a ghost or something else that she had trouble comprehending.

Squall lifted an eyebrow at her trance-like state, and silently wondered if she would display any abnormal magical arts like Gina did the last time she looked similar to this.

"Sharii-chan?" Gina pouted and turned on a little of the lip quivering action that usually got her best friend's attention. Sharon kept walking, murmuring something about how the wheels of fate are permanently against her, and sat down in front of the drum set, absentmindedly grabbing hold of the drumsticks and staring through the crowd, not blinking.

"... oookay..." Zell turned his head and was relieved to see Irvine jumping up on the stage, and quite possibly looking happier than he'd ever been in his life. "It's about time you two showed back up. What took you so long?"

Irvine just grinned like the Chesire Cat. "Just catching up with an old friend." He bent down and picked up the violin and moved to his spot on the stage.

Gina and Zell exchanged perplexed looks while Squall gave his best "whatever" attitude. Selphie waved from the front of the stage, signaling that everyone who wasn't already in place to get ready for showtime. The jitters, butterflies, and every other insect ever invented decided that it was a very good time to play trampoline inside of Gina's stomach, but instead of making her feel nauseated, her hands became unbelievably cold and clammy. As she took her place near the middle of the stage, she tried to will her legs to become solid as she prayed that she wouldn't pass out when the spotlights flicked onto the stage as the cue.

"WELCOME, LADIES AND GENTS, TO BALAMB GARDEN'S FIRST EVER HOMECOMING FESTIVAL HELD AT FISHERMAN'S HORIZON!" Selphie belted out into a microphone from the front of the stage, and the huge crowd full of SeeDs and even a few other spectators alike burst into anticipated applause as the accent lights lit up just the part of the stage at which the energetic SeeD stood. Gina swallowed and noticed that her breathing had quickened as it always did whenever something this nerve-wracking came into play. In the semi-shadows of the stage, Gina took a nervous glance over at her best friend seated at the drums on the opposite side of the stage. Sharon had snapped out of the daze that she was in before, and not a moment too soon. Unfortunately, Sharon also realized that there were a helluva lot more people than she originally thought to show up to this event, and half of her trembled and berated the other half that was strangely ecstatic that an event she had such a strong influence upon was this popular.

As if she knew, Sharon turned her head towards Gina's terrified gaze and gave a reassuring grin and a wink. Gina let out a breath she didn't know she was holding, and gave a small smile back. She then turned her attention back towards the front of the stage where Selphie was still illuminated, and steeled her nerves for the concert. _You can do it, Regina. Just stay calm... as calm as you can be in these circumstances._

"Well, we have a LOT in store for all of you guys tonight! So much, that I think you'll find it hard to believe that only two people planned this whole thing out!" Selphie flashed a big smile and looked down a small piece of paper she held in her left hand. "Our first act is a live band performed by a handful of talented SeeDs that just discovered their hidden musical talents this morning, and they'll be performing a piece that's unlike anything ever played at a Homecoming Festival... or, anywhere else, I would guess! Even though he's helping our little impromptu ensemble perform, I would like to announce that this whole festival is to help commemorate our brand new Commander of Balamb Garden, the mighty Squall Leonhart!"

This time, everyone on the stage stole a glance over to Squall, and even though they were distracted by the shadows and the whooping applause the audience was giving, they could all correctly guess that he was giving an exasperated roll of the eyes and probably wanted to throttle Selphie for bringing that whole thing up again.

"So... without further ado... IT'S SHOWTIME!" Selphie bounced off of the front of the stage and hurriedly turned off her mic while running to a small camcorder on a tripod in a small clear spot near one side of the stage. The rest of the accent lights turned on, and soon the rest of the stage was fully illuminated, and the resounding applause died off in expectation of this unique piece the band was going to play.

Gina stood for what seemed like an excruciating eternity staring blankly out at the middle of the crowd. Some part of her knew, the rational part, that the pause the audience offered shouldn't have weirded her out as much as it did. To her panicky side, her ears were ringing with the deafening silence, and her brain blew a circuit. _Oh, my shit. NO! REGINA, GET THOSE BISCUITS MOVING! NOW! _The autopilot portion of her brain snapped on, and the beginning strums of "Ocean Avenue" resounded better than what she expected from her electric guitar. To her absolute relief, she heard Sharon's drums resound six beats later, and three beats after that, Zell's confident voice was heard over the speakers.

_There's a place off Ocean Avenue_

_Where I used to sit and talk with you_

_We were both 16 and it felt so right_

_Sleepin' all day, staying up all night_

From the moment the makeshift band started playing, the audience was rather shocked and confused. They never recalled anyone using those instruments to make the kind of music that their ears were receiving. A violin with drums and a guitar? But, as alien as it might have been, everyone soon found themselves bobbing their heads to the addictive tunes, and any wonders they had about who in the world could have come up with a musical piece like the one they were hearing flew out of their minds as they concentrated on enjoying it.

_There's a piece of you that's here with me_

_It's everywhere I go, it's everything I see_

_When I sleep, I dream, and it gets me by_

_Make believe that you're here, tonight_

As she got used to being up on stage and performing, Gina actually had time to let her mind wander, most possibly to prevent any random spaz attacks if her brain actually fully registered what she was doing in front of a sea of people she didn't even know. Without glancing over, she knew that Squall was next to her, probably on the same mode of autopilot. She let loose a faint smile when she remembered the first time she had Squall play Guitar Freaks at the mall back home. Her brow furrowed slightly at the thought of "home".

_I remember the look in your eyes_

_When I told you that this was goodbye_

_You were begging me, not tonight_

_Not here, not now_

_We're looking up at the same night sky_

_And keep pretending the sun will not rise_

_Be together for one more night_

_Somewhere, somehow_

It seemed so far away, the place that she had come from. She didn't know whether or not she would be going back to that place, and it almost scared her to realize that the fact didn't pain her as it used to. Gina mentally slapped herself. _You can't let go of all the places and people you grew up knowing and loving just for a world someone else made up! _But she couldn't deny the fact that she was in that fictional world by some twist of fate, and had been living there for what seemed like half a year. As each day passed from the time she and Sharon had learned of the portal's disappearance, Gina had come to adapt to her new surroundings, and gradually let the memories of the world - her world - fade into hazy memories. In a way, who could blame her? It was the only way that she could cope and still manage to function properly. She couldn't spend all of her time mulling over the weirdness that the roles of imagination and reality had quite abruptly traded places.

_If I could find you now, things would get better_

_We could leave this town, and rock forever_

_I know somewhere, somehow, we'll be together_

_Let the waves crash down on me, and take me away_

As she pulled back on her guitar when the final chords were struck, Gina was blasted out her thoughts by the thundering ovation she got from the crowd. Everyone on the stage (save for Squall, of course) donned the same goofy, dazed grin as they took in the vibes from the crowd. _So, this is how it feels to be a star for a day. I wonder if Sharii and I could really have our own band, now. _Gina smiled and bowed deeply to the crowd. It was okay to live in a dream world, at least for the time being. She was given no other choice.


	40. Chapter 40

"Okay, Sharii-chan, you can stop rolling around on the floor, now."

Sharon just sputtered in response and continued to laugh uncontrollably, pausing for a few seconds to catch a much needed breath before collapsing once again, tears streaming down her face.

"But...but... did you see... his face when... OH MY GOD, AHAHAHAHAA!"

Gina looked down and sighed in defeat. "I don't think she's going to stop any time soon, but if she doesn't stop harping on it, then I think Squall's gonna kill her."

Selphie let loose her own giggle and shrugged. "But you have to admit, it was pulled off pretty well. I never would've thought the professor had it in her to do something like that!"

The aforementioned professor appeared then, causing Sharon to halt her laughing and roll up from her position on the floor into a low bow. At this, Quistis gave an amused chuckle.

"I take it you all liked my contribution to the Homecoming Festival?" She turned around slowly, modeling her rather... risqué outfit. It wasn't anything terribly fancy, but it didn't fail to attract attention, either. Her usual "professor" look had been changed drastically to a black patent leather jumpsuit that accented curves that everyone suspected was most certainly already present. The top of the suit was in a corset style, and throughout the entire outfit, buckles and straps were placed to the benefit of the sensuality Quistis flaunted throughout her performance to Britney Spears' "Toxic".

"Of course we all did! But I just can't believe Sharon KNEW ABOUT IT and kept it a secret until NOW!" Selphie whined and batted Sharon playfully.

"Hey hey hey, I knew it would be awesome the moment Quistis told me about it earlier today when we were going over the tunes for this event. I wouldn't have let her skip out on the main concert unless it was really something that good; in this case, it certainly was." Sharon picked herself up off of the ground and brushed off her pants. "But no matter what you all may think, I was NOT expecting her to actually damn near give Squall a lap dance near the end of the song."

The commander of Balamb Garden stood somewhat off to the side, trying hard to pretend that he did not hear what was just said. He didn't mind the performance in itself, even though he and quite possibly the rest of Garden was beyond shocked when they observed one of their most famous professors flouncing around on the stage in a questionable outfit to an equally questionable song. He actually had to keep himself from letting out a snort when he saw a couple of Trepies faint dead on the spot.

But when she sashayed down the stairs and damn near crawled in his lap while using her whip to playfully strap around his neck... the whole performance just crossed the line. Squall remembered glancing quickly over at Zell and finding the most peculiar look of both horror and amusement at the scene unfolding in front of him.

Quistis blushed a bright shade of pink while sheepishly placing one hand to her mouth. "I... got carried away for a little bit. I was having so much fun with the whole thing that I wasn't thinking, and..."

Sharon waved it off and laid a knowing arm across her shoulders. "It's okay. We know. You just couldn't help yourself, could you?" She winked, then nodded over to Squall. "Besides, we know the commander didn't mind it one bit."

Zell and Selphie snorted, and both Quistis and Squall continued to blush a deeper shade of red at that last comment. Gina let out a little chuckle, but she was also concerned because she knew Squall would not take much more of this jest. Clearing her throat, she attempted to change the subject. "So... the concert was fun, wasn't it? I have to admit, I was kind of nervous when I first realized what I was doing, but it was all worth it to hear the applause at the end!"

Zell nodded enthusiastically. "I know! When we were practicing like mad earlier today, I thought that if I ever heard this song again in my life, it would be too soon. But just one night of being on stage and singing it for a whole bunch of people changed my opinions to that song being my all-time favorite!"

"I'm so glad I got it on tape! I have to find a way to digitize it all and put it up on my diary or the Garden web page so people can watch it any time they want!" Selphie did a little hop of joy. "Maybe we can do this kind of thing every year!"

A chorus of blatant "No's" met Selphie at that moment. "No offense, but as great as this turned out, I don't think I can take the stress leading up to this more than once in a LONG while." Sharon shook her head. "I was getting ready to pull my hair out about 5 billion times during this entire day."

"I noticed. Was that the reason you were looking so out of it when you came back after trying to look for Squall?" Gina asked. Sharon paused for a moment, and then rolled her eyes downward. "No..."

The sound of clapping was heard, and everyone turned to see Jenkson and Irvine approaching the group with smiles on their faces. "I must say, this Homecoming Festival turned out to be the best I've seen in awhile." Jenkson said, nodding to all of them. "I can't even begin to think about the amount of preparation it took to pull something amazing off like Leonhart actually going up on stage in front of hundreds of people."

"Believe it or not, it was all Sharii-chan's idea. I was really doubtful that it could happen with such a short amount of time, but if anybody could pull something like that off, it would be her!" Gina beamed at her best friend, who was still looking down and pursing her lips together as if she was trying to will herself not to say something.

Quistis tilted her head slightly to the side. "Sharon, is anything the matter?"

Sharon responded with a sigh and crossed her arms over her chest while continuing to avert her gaze. "Ask Kinneas; I'm sure he has something he wants to share with you all."

Everyone traded confused glances before looking pointedly at Irvine, who had a knowing smirk on his face. "Oh come on now, it's not that bad, now is it?"

"... don't make me have to say a damn thing."

"About what? Oh, you mean the fact that you and I happened to be taught by the same professor?"

Everyone went through another bout of exchanging confused looks, until the realization dawned on them and they turned to Jenkson with expressions of astonishment clear on all of their faces.

"Are you SERIOUS?" Selphie squeaked. "How in the world did THAT happen?"

Jenkson chuckled lightly and scratched the back of his head. "Well, I'm sure you all remember me mentioning a star pupil I had in the past at some time or another." He jerked his head at the cowboy standing next to him. "Imagine my surprise when I see him arguing with Gladden earlier today after years not knowing if he still existed or not. It took me a couple of minutes to convince myself that I was not seeing things, and that my own little Half-Pint really was standing less than a couple of yards away."

"So you used to work at G-Garden?" Squall spoke up. "What happened that had you end up at a rival garden of all places?"

"Let's just say that Martine and I had our disagreements on a couple of things. It wouldn't have been right to spontaneously punch my boss in the face, so I opted for leaving the Garden instead." Jenkson looked up to the darkening sky for a moment before continuing. "As much as I hated how Martine ran things, I felt empty going without training kids like Half-Pint here. My pride certainly would not allow me to come within 3 miles of Galbadia Garden ever again, so I wandered for a bit and met Cid by a chance encounter in Deling. I didn't think that someone from a rival school would ever be as gracious enough to give me a job almost off the bat, but it just goes to show that not every headmaster behaves the same towards other gardens."

Gina grinned widely. "That's so awesome! I knew Cid was the coolest headmaster around!"

"Imagine the chances that you two would meet up here, as well." Quistis mused. "The past couple of weeks have certainly been filled with unexpected surprises."

Zell nudged Sharon. "So, let me guess. You're pissed that once again, everyone's favorite cowboy has somehow managed to screw your life over."

"EXACTLY." At Sharon's exasperated reply, everyone laughed. "But I should have known that Irvine's sharpshooting abilities was the result of Jenkson's coaching."

"What? You actually gave Irvine a compliment?" Selphie put both hands to her cheeks and widened her green eyes in exaggerated shock.

"It was more to Jenkson than that cocky bitchface standing next to him." Sharon retorted. "I mean, if he was able to teach me how to shoot a gun, then I KNOW he had no problem refining Irvine's skills."

Jenkson laughed. "Give yourself a little bit more credit. If you ask me, you and Half-Pint are equal; you both just have opposite strengths and weaknesses. He has the patience and accuracy to shoot down single targets, while you have the speed and coordination to hammer down multiple opponents. I think it's great that you two are working together for the time being; you guys could learn a lot from each other."

Gina had to bite her lip to keep from cracking up when she saw Sharon's eye twitch at that last statement. _Like she could ever see being anywhere near Irvine as a good thing._

"Thanks, but the only thing I've managed to learn from Irvine is how to be the greatest obnoxious fucktard of the century." she stuck her nose in the air.

"Hey, I could teach you a lot of things if you just gave me a chance." He paused while brushing a strand of his chestnut bangs out of his eyes. "And they don't necessarily have to be about sharpshooting." He added with a wink.

Blatantly ignoring the innuendo tacked onto the end of his statement, Sharon whirled around towards the stage. "Uh... no, kthx. I'm going to go change the CD in the stereo system now." As she stormed off towards her destination, Squall rolled his eyes and placed a hand to his forehead. "Tell me WHY you two continue to bicker like children?"

Sharon stopped, and with a lifted eyebrow turned slowly back to face the group. "Just for that, dear commander..." A sadistic smile spread across her facial features. "I hope you're prepared for the finale of this very successful Homecoming Festival."

Squall lifted an eyebrow in return. If her words were supposed to be a form of intimidation, then his look clearly stated that she failed. However, a slight nagging in the back of his head was telling him to be at least a little wary of what the crazy girl might do next.

He found out why shortly afterwards.

A short period of feedback from the microphone being too close to a bunch of equipment at one time, and Sharon got everyone in FH's attention. "Hello, everybody! I hope you all have thoroughly enjoyed this year's Homecoming Festival!" A loud mixture of whooping and applause greeted her, along with the occasional twirl of a brightly colored makeshift glowstick. "As much as it pains me to do so, all great things must come to an end, and this celebration is no exception." She paused as the crowd gave a chorus of disappointed sounds.

"However, I plan to go out with a bang! This festival is not only an annual occurrence for Balamb Garden, but this year it's special because we have been awarded such an awesome commander! Aww yeah, you all know who I'm talking about!" As if on cue, a single spotlight found Squall's stoic figure in the back of the main crowd. The audience gave another round of applause at this, much to Squall's dismay.

"So, the final song of the evening will be a waltz, to give you guys a taste of a traditional SeeD celebration. Commander Leonhart, you shall do us the TREMENDOUS honor of leading the final dance with your pre-determined dance partner... Regina Stewart!"

Up until the point where the bomb was dropped, Gina was feeling pretty good. In fact, she couldn't stop herself from giving silent props to Sharon for coming up with a way to please the crowd while wrapping up the whole extravaganza. _But ME? Dancing with... Squall? IN FRONT OF ALL OF THESE PEOPLE? _The earlier feelings of anxiety during the opening concert were minuscule compared to the true wave of horror washing over her at that moment.

"The closing song may not be a traditional waltz, but it should work just as fine. You all come across as experts at the dance, so I'll leave it up to you guys to improvise as needed." Sharon grinned widely and switched the CDs with a flourish before pressing the play button. "Have a Enjoy!"

If Squall was one for attracting tons of attention, he would have done so by jumping up on that stage and lopping off Sharon's head with his gunblade for pulling such an impromptu stunt. But since his name wasn't Seifer Almasy, and the little nagging voice in the back of his head that was warning him before was busy chanting rows upon rows of "I told you so!", there was little he could do but comply. He inwardly sighed and waited for the first chords of whatever song Sharon had chosen so he could gauge exactly how he was going to lead the dance.

_Call me out_

_You stayed inside_

_One you love_

_Is where you hide_

_Shot me down_

_As I flew by_

_Crash and burn_

_I think sometimes, you forget where the heart is_

Gina recognized the song alright, and had no doubt that Sharon had done a good job of picking an appropriate tempo for such a waltz. The only problem was that she wasn't sure of her capabilities for performing a dance she observed only in an FMV sequence. Granted, she was such a fangirl for FFVIII that she pretty much memorized how Squall and Rinoa looked during one of the first FMVs of the game, but watching and doing are two different things. Gina couldn't stop her eyes from widening further when Squall straightened up formally and extended his hand towards her. _Oh... my... dear... god... I can't believe this... _She made herself move forward and nervously took his hand and get into what she thought was an appropriate waltzing stance. _Don't think about it, Regina. If you do, you will die. End of story._

_Answer no, to these questions_

_Let her go, learn a lesson_

_It's not me, you're not listening now_

_Can't you see? Something's missing_

_You forget where the heart is_

Squall really wasn't expecting Gina to know anything about the special waltz that was protocol for all SeeDs, but when she did, it made his life a bit easier. She looked uncertain and sometimes in deep concentration, as if she was trying to remember where to put her foot next and how to turn so she was facing the right way at the right time. _Well, here's to another unsolved mystery dealing with Gina._

_Take you away, from that empty apartment_

_You stay, and forget where the heart is_

_Someday, if ever you love me_

_You'd say, it's okay_

Sharon was simply beaming when she saw Squall and Gina lead the rest of the crowd in a unified waltz. _Oh, they're both going to kill me for this later, but it's SO gonna be worth it! _Catching Selphie's eye, she jerked her head pointedly at Irvine and waved her on. Even from her place on the stage, Sharon could see Selphie starting to blush and shake her head vehemently. As it turned out, Sharon didn't have to insist any more because Irvine offered his hand to Selphie, and she sheepishly took it. Even Zell and Quistis paired up for a friendly dance. Rocking back on her heels, Sharon looked to the sky. _Job well done, Sharon-Ann. Now make your ass extinct before the song is over to avoid being slaughtered by your best friend AND commander. _Making sure that the stereo was set to stop playing the CD after the track was done, she took one last look at the dancing crowd and slipped off-stage.

_It's okay to be angry and never let go_

_It only gets harder the more that you know_

_When you get lonely, if no one's around_

_You know that I'll catch you when you're falling down_

As both of them got more comfortable dancing, Squall found his mind drifting to a party awhile back, the one when he first became a SeeD. He was fully intent on being a wallflower all evening; he wouldn't have even gone if it wasn't mandatory for him to have been there. But while letting his eyes drift down from the massive skylight that revealed a beautiful night dotted with stars, one girl from the crowd caught his eye. That girl smiled and pointed to the sky for a moment, and then made her way over to him. No matter how much he protested that he didn't dance, she wouldn't hear any excuses and literally dragged him out onto the dance floor before he knew it.

Squall knew the waltz, but he never actually planned on doing it, especially at that moment. He was too shocked at the audacity of the girl in the short yellow dress that forced him into the predicament to make his brain work, so as a result he stumbled over his own feet and knocked into a couple of people. As much as Squall tried to leave before he cost the mystery girl and himself any more pride, she never let up until he got it right.

_We came together, but you left alone_

_And I know how it feels to walk out on your own_

_Maybe someday I will see you again_

_And you'll look me in my eyes and call me your friend_

He always wondered what he must've looked like through the eyes of Rinoa, and ironically he was getting his wish. Despite the fact that Gina wasn't as clumsy as Squall was that night, he felt as if he got the chance to rewind time and look at himself through another's eyes. The more he thought about it, the more it occurred to him that Gina served as a human mirror for his own actions, past or present. Now that Squall consciously realized it, every flaw and every virtue to his persona was made evident to him in a different light, a light that was slowly making him understand himself... as well as understand someone else with the same doubts and feelings.

When the song came to a close, he was jolted out of his thoughts by random SeeDs congratulating him on his promotion and the rest of the group making their way over.

"Dude, that was an awesome track! It was by Yellowcard again, wasn't it?" Zell breathed. "Man, I just might have to make Yellowcard my favorite band..."

Selphie nodded, then looked at the stage where she could have sworn Sharon was standing just a couple of minutes ago. "Umm... where'd Sharon go?"

"She knew she'd get hurt if she stayed around too long after pulling a stunt like that." Irvine laughed. "I saw her slip off in the middle of the song; a smart move, I might add."

Gina put her hands on her hips and put on an exaggerated show. "Well, I guess we'll just have to show her that she can't run away from us, right everyone?" She broke out in a grin and nudged Squall lightly in the arm. "C'mon; I know you're looking for revenge, too."

As the group began their hunt for the missing Sharon, Squall began to wonder if everything that happened from the start of his mission to the other world was a coincidence, or if fate was trying to tell him something that he wasn't quite grasping yet.


	41. Chapter 41

**A/N:** So. Now I'm back at college after about a week and a half of being at home from China. I hate moving now. My internet is working and my roomie hasn't moved in yet, and I'm REALLY kinda dreading classes. I'm not taking fun classes like I was in China. Damnit! But thanks all for waiting for the story to be updated. You know I'll eventually get around to it, right?

* * *

"So... are you SURE there's nothing else we can do?" Zell kept prodding to Squall's exasperation. He heaved a sigh and put a hand to his forehead. After the Homecoming Festival at FH, Selphie approached Squall and made a request to travel to Trabia to see what could be salvaged.

"Zell... I understand how you're feeling and all, but we've done all that we can for Balamb. The only thing that we can possibly do is cut the threat off at the root, which would be to eliminate the sorceress."

Zell looked downcast at this. He wasn't really looking forward to going against a sorceress, whether it be his destiny as a SeeD to do so or not. Not only that, but he wished he didn't have to leave his mom in Balamb when it was still slightly teeming with Galbadian soldiers.

As if sensing his distress, Ravi bounded over and laid two huge paws on Zell's leg, looking up at him as if he could somehow project good vibes to the martial artist. It seemed to work, since Zell let out a grin and bent down to ruffle the moomba's fur. Right after that, the elevator to the bridge whirred to life, and Selphie waved to them both.

"Hey you guys, we just landed at Trabia! C'mon, let's go!"

Inwardly, Squall let out another sigh, since he wasn't looking forward to seeing what was possibly left of Trabia Garden. He knew, just as everyone else did, that the first missiles launched from the base were aimed directly for Trabia. Squall also didn't want to see Selphie's hopeful disposition be shattered by what would inevitably be waiting for her once she stepped off onto the snowy banks. _You can't do anything about it. What will be, will be._

The group stepped off of Balamb Garden's platform and wrapped their perspective jackets or coats around them for extra warmth. The wind wasn't blowing, but a light sprinkling of snow was drifting down from the skies above, casting a serene and slightly eerie silence over the sprawling landscape surrounded by forests and mountains. Sharon gazed in a trance-like state over it all, and once again nostalgia bit her as it did back in Deling. _I bet it's snowing up a storm back in Michigan..._

"C'mon, Sharii-chan..." Gina tugged, knowing what was going through her best friend's mind. Sharon gave Gina a reassuring smile, and they hurried to catch up with the rest of the group at Trabia Garden's entrance.

Well, what used to be the entrance.

Selphie stared unblinkingly at the crumbling wall in front of her, almost like a statue. The only sign of movement was the constant tuft of air that signified that she was at least still breathing. Everyone behind her came to a stop a couple of paces behind her, half out of awe to what had been done to the once beautiful Garden and half out of respect for what Selphie could have been feeling at that moment in time.

"A direct hit?" she managed to squeak out, her eyes still gracing the damage done to just the outer perimeters of what used to be her home for as long as she could remember. Quistis came forward then and laid a hand on the smaller girl's shoulder. Zell pursed his lips and punched a fist into his open palm.

"Man, this really pisses me off! I'm going in." He stormed forward and started climbing up a mesh-like debris off to one side of the wall. That seemed to snap Selphie out of her daze, and she rushed through the snow to follow him. Soon, everyone carefully followed up and over the wall, where they stood in the middle of a crumbled walkway leading straight up to a slightly tilted marble fountain.

Gina looked to the right and the left of her slowly, drinking in the depressing scenery around her. Kids were huddled up in corners, clutching their stuffed animals as if it was a symbol of their lifelines. Remaining SeeDs rushed about, fixing what they could or just being a consoling hand to those who were still in shock. _Man... this reminds me of Hiroshima right after the atomic bomb..._

Squall walked up beside them, his gaze looking right through the damage in front of him. Every now and then his ice blue eyes moved, but not to better get a glimpse of his surroundings. It was the look of one who was lost in his thoughts, something definitely not an abnormality for the young commander.

"The sorceress and her army will not invade this place." Gina stated, in answer to his thoughts. Squall blinked and looked over at her, but didn't bother asking questions. No matter how many times it happened, it was still slightly eerie for Gina to know so much about almost everything. _Maybe Zell and Selphie are right; maybe Gina is psychic. _"Why do you think that?"

Gina turned to face him. "The job has already been done; to her, this place is dead. No matter how many SeeDs run themselves ragged today, tomorrow, or even into the next couple of weeks, this will not be a base of operation anytime soon." She turned her gaze to the cracks in the ground. "The only two Gardens she has to worry about are Galbadia and Balamb... and if she has a hold of the Galbadian Army..."

She didn't even have to finish her sentence. Squall steeled his gaze forward and pursed his lips. "Then we'd better get back to Garden and prepare for a possible attack. Where is everyone?"

"I believe they're all in the basketball court, along that pathway to the right." Sharon pointed, and the three of them made their way through pieces of debris until they reached their destination. Sharon kicked at a piece of upturned asphalt and let loose a snort. "This reminds me of how the streets of Michigan look on a good day."

Quistis stood off to the side of the court with her arms folded, her eyes full of sympathy for the people of this Garden. She wouldn't know what she would be doing if something like this happened to Balamb, and she found the people of Trabia to have incredibly strong wills to keep going despite the humongous tragedy that struck them all. Zell was on the opposite side of the court, practicing his moves as usual. But instead of just being hyperactive, he was doing the best he could to keep his mind off of depressing events - and also off of the cold. Irvine stood in the middle of the crumbling asphalt, the brim on his cowboy hat low so no one could read his expression. Squall entered and stood somewhere between Quistis and Irvine, and Gina and Sharon stood together near the entrance.

"We're leaving as soon as Selphie gets here. We're on standby until then." Squall stated, not sure whether or not to say anything else. They were already pretty downtrodden with the coming of the latest events, and any news about a possible battle wouldn't be welcomed in a positive light. _Since when was fighting ever positive, anyway?_

Thankfully, a lone basketball bounced past them all, skittering across the crevices and coming to a stop at Irvine's feet. Selphie bounced in, despite the gloominess of the situation. She plastered a smile on her face as she looked to everyone. "Sorry to keep you waiting. Thank you so much for coming all the way out here, you guys."

Irvine looked up then, the brim lifted to reveal a deep rooted concern for the normally bubbly girl. "Cheer up, eh?"

Selphie smiled, a true smile this time. "Thanks." She then turned to Squall, a determined glint already starting to shine in her green eyes. "Take me with you, when you fight the sorceress, ok? I want to get even. I want my revenge!"

"You might not want revenge so badly when you truly know your enemy." Gina said tentatively, drawing everyone's incredulous gazes. Gina didn't meet anyone in the eyes, and fidgeted every once in awhile. "I mean... it's good as SeeDs to have a will or a purpose for fighting... but what if at that crucial moment, it's not what you want? You want to turn around, run away..."

"... but you can't, because you've already taken that initial step. You can't turn back, at the risk of losing something... or someone... greater." Irvine completed, picking up the basketball at his feet. "It's tough when you live your life that way, I know... but that's why I fight." Twirling the basketball between his hands, he took a few steps backwards, his eyes on the crooked basketball rim in front of him. "When I was a little kid... about 4 or so... I was in an orphanage. Plenty of kids with no parents... it was around the end of Sorceress War, so I guess it couldn't really be helped." Irvine took a shot then, and it bounced haphazardly across the rim. He smirked when a snort sounded and didn't even have to turn around to know that Sharon was the source of it.

"Anyway, that's where I was. And out of all of the kids there... one was very special to me."

Sharon let out a giddy smile and glanced over at Selphie, knowing what was coming next. _Ah yes, the moment of truth! _As happy as she was, she also felt a tiny bubble of uneasiness amidst it all. Before she could decipher what it could possibly mean, she swallowed it down and wished she had a bag of popcorn to watch one of the major turning points of the game unfold before her. _Man, Gina must be ten times more geeked than I am right about now... _Sharon turned her head to catch Gina's expression.

"I really liked this girl, and it made me so happy just talking to her."

Sharon blinked in shock when she realized Gina had disappeared from her side, somehow without making any noise and escaping the attention of everyone when she did it.

"Was that orphanage... a stone house?"

"You guessed it."

Sharon nonchalantly whipped her head from side to side, her eyes straining each and every nook and cranny of the basketball court while blinking repeatedly to make sure she didn't miss anybody.

"An old stone house... by the ocean?"

"Yep! I knew right away, when we first met!"

Tapping her foot nervously, Sharon looked to everyone to make sure they were all enraptured by their trip down memory lane, and took a couple of steps backwards, a hopefully innocent smile on her face just in case anyone caught her bailing.

"Heey! That was you! Why didn't you tell us!"

"Yes, why didn't you?"

Sharon walked at a very brisk pace, retracing her steps while looking frantically for her best friend. _I swear to God, if anything happened to her... _Swallowing the fear that threatened to rise in her throat, she tried to look more relaxed since random SeeDs were passing by and wondering if she lost a small child or something by the panicked look on her face. _She's here somewhere, just calm the hell down and find her..._

"'Cause you all seemed to have forgotten! It just kinda sucked that I was the only one who remembered... spunky little Sefie and bossy little Quisty."

Finally, her eyes caught a figure in white sitting on the edge of the crumbling circular fountain, her knees drawn up to her chest and her katana laying innocently on the ground beside her. Sharon let out a tremendous sigh of relief, even placing a hand to her chest for dramatic effect. "G-fuu, what's up! Next time, let a sista know when you're leaving, because you for sure gave me a heart att-" She cut off her happy babble when a hiccup shook her best friend's body. "...Gina?"

"If I remember this... does that mean I was there too?"

At the mention of her name, Gina lifted her head from her knees, revealing fresh tears streaming down her cheeks. Sharon's stomach dropped to hell as it always did when she realized Gina was crying, and immediately she was kneeling on the ground next to her. "G-fuu! What... what's going on! Were you attacked, are you hurt... what..."

"I'm... we're so stupid, Sharii-chan." Gina managed to choke out in between sobs, wiping her face with the back of her hand.

"What? I know I'm not the sharpest tool in the shed, but you're not making much sense..."

"All this time... we've been fooling ourselves... god, it hit me so hard when they were talking... I couldn't stand there and listen to it anymore..."

Sharon's eyes darted back and forth like a lost puppy's, a look of utter confusion on her face as her brain struggled to decipher just what was making Gina so upset. She wanted to shake her, to try to get what she was obviously missing out. Instead, Sharon listened to her sensible side and simply engulfed Gina in a big hug, as if to smother the sadness right out of her. "I'm so sorry... but I..."

The girl in the white dragon hoodie gratefully clung to her best friend for a few moments while she tried to regain her composure before pulling away, sniffing constantly. "Sharii-chan... tell me... what was missing in that basketball court?"

"What, besides some bleachers?" Sharon cut the half-hearted joke off at the root and thought seriously. "Umm... I don't... I don't know! Everything seemed in the right place..."

"Rinoa wasn't there."

Sharon blinked at Gina as if she just said the ground was purple. "Uh... yeah, but that's not anything new. But why is that making you cry? I thought we already decided that not having Rinoa here was a good thing, and that we wouldn't..."

Gina just looked on as the realization dawned on her best friend's face like a blossoming black rose. First her eyes widened, then her entire expression took on such a somber look as her eyes trailed slowly to the cracked ground beneath her. After a moment, she rose her gaze to meet Gina's.

"Hey! There you guys are!"

Selphie came up as if she ran the entire way there, and laid the palms of her hands on her knees for a moment to catch her breath. She smiled brightly. "When did you guys sneak out on us? I wouldn't want you guys to get lost or..." she trailed off when she noticed Gina's tear-streaked face. "Gina?"

"What? What's wrong with Gina?" Zell pushed himself up to take a look. "Yo... what's going on?"

Sharon pursed her lips together in a tight line, extremely displeased at the gawk-fest they were making of Gina's current condition. She moved a bit closer to Gina and put on her sternest look. "Nothing."

Both Zell and Selphie backed up at the tone of Sharon's voice and looked at each other. They knew good and damn well it wasn't "nothing", but as long as Sharon was looking like that, they knew not to push it any further. Quistis and Irvine withheld their own inquiries, but Squall took a step forward and looked directly at Gina. "Regina... is there anything wrong?"

Gina first caught a hold of Sharon's hand to prevent her from cussing out Squall for undermining her authority, then gathered herself and stood up. "I had something in my eye, that's all." She bent down and picked up her katana and slung it across her back. "So, we ready to go?"

Squall lifted an eyebrow. Her voice was confident, but she never did look him in the eye. Measuring the tension in the air, and once again feeling everyone's eyes on him to do something, he shrugged and continued walking back down to the entrance of Trabia Garden. The rest of the orphanage gang followed shortly afterwards, giving their own concerned glances towards the two girls that seemed to trail behind.

_My god... this fuckin' sucks._ Sharon trudged through the snow drifts back to the docked Balamb Garden. Not only had the snow picked up considerably since they made their little pit stop at Trabia, but the overall mood that was hanging over them all was shitty. _It almost felt better when we were all looking at the Holocaust that is Trabia Garden... and most of this is my damn fault. Great job, Sharon._ Pissed at herself for destroying the good mood most of them had before encountering her overprotective and bitchy attitude concerning Gina, she racked her brain to find some way to turn the emotional tables. Looking down to make sure she was following in the same footsteps, she paused in afterthought and bent down to gather up a clump of snow.

"Yo! Bitchface!" Irvine stopped and turned, recognizing one of the many profane pet names Sharon seemed to come out with every other day. "Catch!" He watched as Sharon wound up and threw the snowball as hard as she could in his general direction, and he ducked just before it would have hit him right in the chest.

Time froze.

Irvine was still bent over from dodging the snowball from hell, his hands half clutching the brim of his cowboy hat. Quistis was standing impossibly straight, her face portraying little to no emotion. Selphie was slightly hunched, both of her hands to her mouth and her eyebrows way up on her forehead. Zell was stopped in the middle of a long stride across the deepening snow, Sharon was still in the recoil from her monster hook, and Gina held an expression of pure horror. Everyone was looking in the same direction.

Squall, after what seemed like an eternity, reached up and wiped bits of snow from his face from the snowball that happened to hit him square between the eyes. Half melted slush from the time of impact was sprayed into his eyebrows and was dripping off meticulously slow.

"Oh... my... hell..." Sharon coughed and tried to estimate how much shit she was in for what she just pulled. "Okay... you see what had happened was..." She backed up and clutched Gina's sleeve for protection.

Squall wordlessly blinked, then bent down to gather up a fistful of snow.

"... oh... no no... oh hell naw..." Sharon gulped, and just as Squall had finished packing a nicely sized snowball, turned and ran for her life in the opposite direction. Irvine saw her getaway and gave chase almost immediately. It was a close race, but because of the cowboy's longer legs he was able to bound quickly towards the fleeing girl and tackle her from behind.

"JIHFADSJKGDF..." Coughing out a faceful of snow, Sharon started throwing a fit. "I KNOW... YOU JUST DID NOT... PLANT ME FACE FIRST INTO THE SNOW!"

"I didn't. You just fell that way."

"WHAT THE FUCK? 'YOU JUST FELL THAT WAY'? YOU MOTHER FUCKING..."

Quistis lost her composure and let out a tiny giggle, which she tried to quickly hide. _If anyone has to set an example here, it makes sense that the only professor of the group should... _she was shot out of her thought pattern quite abruptly by the sensation of icy cold snow dripping down the back of her neck. Her teeth clenched together and her eyes incredulously wide, she turned around very slowly to the culprit. If her eyes could have gotten any wider, they would have when she realized it was the commander himself who had thrown the snowy missile. "... Squall?"

Squall crossed his arms and looked as unconcerned as he would usually look... if it wasn't for the faintest trace of a smirk on his face.

"OOOOH! MY TURN!" Selphie unearthed an impossibly large chunk of snow and hurled the entire thing at Zell, who surprisingly didn't have time to move out of the way before the thing exploded like an atomic bomb on his right shoulder. As he bent down to make his retaliation attempt, he set himself up nicely for the dump of snow on his spiky hair by none other than Gina.

"AAHHHH! GINA!"

"Hmm?" Gina flashed her best angelic smile.

After that, 7 SeeDs engaged in the biggest snowball fight of the season.

* * *

**SLy:** Glad you enjoy it so far! I may lapse in updating for a couple of weeks but I never forget about it and let it collect dust. It's too much of a big project for me to do that, ya know?

**GurassuShinzo:** Sharon pulled off something that would have had her killed promptly IF she didn't leave. ROFL

**Rae Anderson:** Hyperactive? Well then, we just might be friends. LOL! This story didn't work out at first how I wanted to. That's why it took me a whopping 3 years just to get to this point. Writer's Block is a bitch, really. But don't worry, I'll update!

**Akiraine of Gia:** The name of the song that was played during the waltz is by Yellowcard called "Empty Apartment". I thought it fit the moment. :D And I got to know that song BY downloading it on a whim, so I think that gives you free reign to nab just that one song right? You would most probably have to buy CD's like FFX-2 and Utada Hikaru offline since they usually aren't found in most stores. Unless you live in Japan or something. 40 chapters IS long... and to think it's still not over yet and there's a sequel in the making. Man, now THAT'S scary. More stories filled with random curse words, yay! I do have to agree that I don't like Rinoa's character much... her and Aerith from FFVII run along the same lines where I am concerned. But I can't say that I have a favorite Final Fantasy game since I like them all evenly. Don't worry about rambling in the reviews section; I babble myself, so that's why I have a journal AND I write longass fanfiction. Thanks for all of your thoughts!


	42. Chapter 42

Squall lowered the special binoculars handed to him by Nida, a hardened expression on his face. Just as he was expecting, Galbadia Garden had Balamb cornered. The only thing he wasn't counting on was the encounter being so soon. _It's no use on trying to buy time we obviously don't have, either. _"This battle is inevitable," he finally said, handing the binoculars back to the pilot.

"The sorceress is with them, huh?" Nida looked back out towards the front display. "So... this is going to be the final battle?"

"I hope so." After they trudged back onboard after the impromptu snowball fight, the reunited orphanage gang decided to pay a visit to Edea's house. It probably wasn't the best time to take the Garden for a wild goose chase across the globe, but Irvine suggested that it might be good to soak in their memories as extra fortification for the battle ahead. Squall silently agreed, and was now wishing he had more time to meditate on all of this new information. _The orphanage... our memories... the GFs... Matron... Seifer... not to mention Ellone and Laguna... _The number of things that Squall fought to keep off of his brain were adding up, and quickly.

And he wasn't sure what was going on between Gina and Sharon. Despite Sharon being the one to break the tension with the snowball fight, ever since the event at Trabia, the two girls haven't been quite the same towards the rest of them. Squall wasn't sure if anyone else noticed, but Gina and Sharon were slowly but surely becoming more withdrawn and keeping more to themselves. Normally, he wouldn't have paid that much attention, but when the conversation decreased and the number of knowing glances between the best friends increased, it was enough to drive him crazy. _Why are you so concerned? Just be glad that it's one less thing you have to worry about... for now._

Squall cleared his mind as best he could, and took the microphone to make his orders. He originally had a list of instructions for everyone to follow, but he figured that the only thing that was most important was to get everyone prepared for the upcoming battle. "This is Squall speaking. This is an emergency, so listen carefully." He paused for a split second and glanced to the group, who nodded for him to go on. "We're going into battle against Galbadia Garden. The enemy will probably come on board. We must concentrate our forces at the front gate and at the Quad. If your student ID number is even, report to the Quad. If it's odd, report to the front gate."

Quistis and Zell nodded to each other, and took the elevator down to get to the front gate. Sharon and Gina shared a long hug, since they were opposing numbers and had to be on opposite sides of the Garden for a tide-turning battle. Ravi squealed and took his usual position for "guarding" the bridge, and Selphie hurried on her way to the Quad. Squall replaced the microphone in its hook and made his way down the elevator to get to the front gate.

"Hey hey hey!" Irvine tilted his head and gave a mock hurt look towards the commander. "What's up? I thought I was part of the gang."

"Oh, shut it. You are most certainly part of the gang, so I would suggest you be grateful that you are." Sharon snapped, checking her handguns to make sure there were fresh clips loaded. "Selphie's down at the Quad. Why don't you come and help her stake out the place?" She made sure to make her voice sound less snippy, but when the elevator doors slid open to the ground floor, Sharon was the first one off, her gaze set purposely in front of her.

Irvine gave a startled blink. "Umm... PMS, maybe?"

Squall let out a sigh. "Whatever." _I wish it was something as simple as PMS. _He walked the opposite way, towards the front gate.

Sharon walked briskly, taking off her cowboy hat to ruffle her hair agitatedly. As important as the upcoming battle was, her thoughts were the furthest from the task at hand. Her mind was on Gina's breakdown at Trabia and its effect on her outlook on everything that they've been doing since bogarding their way into Balamb Garden.

_"All this time... we've been fooling ourselves..."_

That should have been the first warning. Fooling herself into thinking that it would work out. Fooling themselves into thinking that they could just as easily fit in here as they fit in their own world. _Oh yeah, that's right... we DON'T fit in there either, my bad. That was probably what made it all the more goddamn worse, _Sharon put in bitterly.

_"I thought we already decided that not having Rinoa here was a good thing, and that we wouldn't..."_

Rinoa would not be despised by Gina and Sharon if it were not for two distinctive character faults. The main rub was her clinginess. Both of them swore that they wouldn't be heavily dependent on anyone (save for themselves), no matter if they were surrounded by strange places and people, strifes and beliefs. Armed with the wealth of knowledge they already had about the FFVIII universe, they were pretty confident that if everything went according to the script, then there would be no problems in that category.

But they had both forgotten about the other character trait, the one that wasn't so easily covered, the one that they inherited from Rinoa whether they liked it or not, and would never change. It was the fact that they didn't belong.

* * *

Gina examined the edge of her katana while waiting for the first wave of enemy lines at the front gate, looking grossly intrigued with the way the light fractured off of the precision blade that could cut through almost anything... except adamantine, of course.

_"I'm... we're so stupid, Sharii-chan."_

Gina was aware that Squall had joined everyone else at the front gate watch, but she didn't move to acknowledge anyone's presence. She couldn't. She was afraid that if she looked any of them in the eyes, her shame would show through, and she'd have to live with that, too. _I think I've caused enough trouble already._

_"god, it hit me so hard when they were talking... I couldn't stand there and listen to it anymore..."_

All though her life, Gina was a loner. It was either because of her abnormally shy demeanor or because her personal interests never did quite fit in to be accepted by anyone around her. At a young age, video games became quite an addiction. For Gina, it was much easier to escape the harsh reality by letting herself become absorbed into a video game and letting her imagination run wild. It was her outlet for all of the pain and loneliness that racked up over the years. Before Sharon walked into her life during high school, video games were the only things keeping her relatively sane.

_That's why it hurts so much. _Gina focused more intently on her frayed reflection in the sharper edge of the blade. Her whole life was nothing but video games. She got the unbelievable chance to leave her world for one of her, if not the favorite of all of her video games... just to be slammed back down to earth by a conversation that she knew good and damn well was coming around sooner or later.

* * *

_We're just a couple of Rinoa's after all, aren't we? _Sharon slowed her pace when she neared the main area of the quad, where she could make out Selphie flailing around excitedly, hyping up the SeeD that were already on post for the upcoming battle. Not only did that very idea disgust Sharon to the core, but she also blamed herself for not seeing it sooner. She just had to wait until everything was already said, done, and in motion to realize that she nor Gina would ever be truly a part of "the gang". They are not SeeDs. They are not orphans. Hell, they weren't even from the same planet!

* * *

_Damnit!_ Gina noticed her vision blurring and turned the opposite way quickly, just in case anyone noticed she was pretty much on the verge of tears again. _Why do I always look for acceptance in things that don't matter? _Gina was beginning to think it was some truly horrible human trait she was forever cursed with, because she could find no other answer. But she knew one thing was for sure. They had to go. The vacation was over. Neither of them knew of a way to get out of what they most positively jumped in, but that could be researched in depth later. _Game over. These aren't real people, so therefore they do not truly exist. Avoid hurting them, but more importantly, avoid more hurt to yourself._

* * *

Suddenly, Sharon was aware that a hand had closed over her left wrist, and she abruptly turned to see that Irvine was the source of it. "What?"

"Okay, what is up with you lately? You're acting stranger than usual."

"... Nothing." Sharon jerked her wrist back to her side just to be almost toppled over by a more forceful tug from the persistent cowboy. "What in the..."

"Don't even start, not now. Both you and Gina have been acting very weird since Trabia, and don't think we haven't noticed."

"Unhand me, idiot. This is not the time for this bullsh-"

"Not until you tell me what the HELL is going on with you two!" Irvine demanded, his voice losing all of its usual playful tone. He moved so he was directly in front of her. "Tell me... please?"

Sharon sucked in a deep breath and forced herself to look him right in the eyes. After a few moments of an intense stare down, she let loose the breath and averted her gaze to the ground. "Look... I'm sorry. We both are. We knew this battle was coming up... and..." she paused for dramatic effect. "... it hit us pretty hard. Gina was the first to realize it, which is why you saw her crying back at Trabia. At first, I was just really concerned about Gina, but now, the seriousness of the situation made itself known to me and I'm pretty high strung about it. Gina and I weren't raised in an environment even a penny similar to what's going on right now, and we need to adjust. So just... give us time. Okay?"

Irvine's gaze softened when he listened to what Sharon had to say, and the grip on her wrist weakened. Everything made sense... except was something in her eyes that didn't match. It was almost as if she was... sad, not exactly nervous or troubled. _Or maybe I'm just reading into things all wrong..._

Just then, a panicked group of SeeD rushed in, telling everyone to brace themselves because they were going to crash head on into Galbadia Garden. As everyone looked around for something to hold onto, a bone shuddering vibration from the imminent collision rang through the entire Garden, causing everyone to momentarily stagger 90 degrees to the left. Sharon was in the middle of giving herself major cool points for not tripping and falling face first onto the concrete like she knew she should have done, until she realized she was sandwiching herself against Irvine, who was squished up against a brick wall. _Oh, for the love of..._

"So, you like it rough, don't you?" Irvine predictably commented, being sure to add the tale-tell wink. He was actually doing that on purpose, to get Sharon to chew him out like she most surely would. He learned early on that he did not like to see her emotionally distraught over anything for too long.

Sharon glared at him for a moment, and looked like she was going to bite his head off and feed it to the worms. But instead, she gave the most peculiar half-grin and tapped his cheek lightly with her index finger. "Why yes, I most certainly do. How observant of you." Pushing herself away from the wall, her expression turned into a full fledged grin as she pulled out her handguns. "I think these assmongers will find out just how rough I like it."

Irvine was still in the middle of trying to comprehend the weirdness of that last exchange when Sharon paused in the middle of running off to battle the first wave of Galbadian soldiers to look at him pointedly. "Uh, hello? Selphie's waiting for her prince in shining armor! GET YOUR ASS OVER THERE!"

He scrambled away from the wall he managed to peel himself off of and readied his rifle as he followed Sharon into the heart of the Quad battle. "Yep... definitely PMS."


	43. Chapter 43

**A/N:** My classes suck. xx; If I didn't have all the good distractions that I have around me then I think I'd be freaking depressed. Chinese 201 is THE hardest class EVAR on the face of this planet (okay, besides rocket science). Why? Cause the book has no English in it whatsoever, and I don't know enough Hanzi even AFTER China to decipher much of it. -wants to die- But... I'll get through it. Hopefully.

* * *

Sharon ran and skid along the glossy surface of the tiled hallway, almost ramming into the opposite wall full force. She pushed herself away from the wall and continued running just as a green-suited Paratrooper rammed their sword into the place where she just was.

Up until that point in time, Sharon was doing fine, considering the circumstances. She wounded quite a few adversaries just enough so that they wouldn't be getting up anytime soon, even if they managed to get a high-level Cure spell. _That's the good thing about bullets; they'll have to get em out their skin before they even think about healing themselves. _But Sharon did get away without killing anyone, since she would never feel completely comfortable with herself if she killed something that was human.

Oh, how she wished the people hunting her down felt the same way.

Sharon risked a glance behind her and immediately wished she hadn't; now there were two new soldiers running after her head. It was terribly ironic for her to be running for her life in a video game, and never had to do such a thing in her hometown of Detroit, one of the unsafest cities in America. _Hell, I would rather walk down the east side of Detroit at 3 in the morning than be chased after like this. _She didn't know how in the world she got separated from Irvine and Selphie so fast, but she did remember wanting to go and help Gina.

Tumbling into the first open doorway she saw, she scrambled to the switch and hit it so the metal of the door slid firmly shut behind her. Just to make sure, Sharon pulled out one of her handguns and shot the switch out. She breathed heavily and tried to keep herself from shaking.

But she quickly had another heart attack when someone touched her shoulder from behind. Spinning around and aiming her gun in the face of whomever decided to scare the shit out of her, she realized that it was Quistis.

"SHARON! Put that gun down before you kill someone!" Quistis ordered, and Sharon quickly complied, looking down as if her own mother was about to ground her for life. The professor crossed her arms and shook her head pitifully. "So... how do you propose we leave this classroom now that the door has been forced permanently shut?"

_Oh yeah, didn't think about that. _"Uh... well, you see what had happened was..."

"SHARII-CHAN!" Gina threw herself at her best friend, almost knocking the wind out of her. Gina just got done fending off an attack on the classroom with Quistis and Squall and was silently praying that Sharon was doing okay down in the quad. Zell had gone off in the opposite direction, rallying a group of junior officers through a surprise attack through the ceiling.

"How's your group doing?" Squall appeared, walking between a tight row of desks.

Sharon shrugged. "We're holding out, if nothing else. They just keep coming, though; if we don't cut off these bastards at the source, then we'll eventually be losing more SeeDs than we can afford for proper defense of this Garden."

Squall pursed his lips. _Maybe I should have focused on attacking in the beginning instead of concentrating on our defense. _"We need to regroup at the bridge."

"Good luck." Quistis nodded towards the sealed door.

Walking over, Squall performed an extraordinary feat of lock picking that involved ramming the sharp edge of his gunblade between where the lock should be and door, and prying the thing open with little effort. Gina's eyebrows shot way up on her head and mentally tried to figure out how the hell he did it so that his sword didn't bend like she was certain her's would if she tried it. Right on cue, Squall glanced over to Gina. "Adamantine plated." He brushed off the edge of his gunblade and walked off down the hall.

"That's not fair... where was my adamantine coat when I needed it..." Gina pouted, thinking of the time where she tried to cut half of the group out of the wreck from the missile base. Sharon just grabbed her arm. "C'mon girl, no time to worry about that. We gotta book!"

Not a minute later, they found themselves in the circular confines of the bridge, and an excited Ravi galloped forwards and attached himself to Gina's leg. She bent down to give the moomba a big hug while Squall made a quick announcement for the rest of the group to get back up to the bridge, and pretty soon everyone was reunited, looking a little bit worse for wear.

"Dude! You know Seifer's in G-Garden, right?" Zell blurted out. Obviously Squall didn't previously know, even though he should have figured if the sorceress was there as well. _That's just another thing I wish I didn't have to worry about... _"Alright. We're going to have to attack them head on. They have too many experienced fighters that can wipe us out if we continue trying to fend them off. I'm just not sure how we're going to board their garden..."

"I can ram into them." Nida spoke up, looking over his shoulder at everyone. "It sounds crazy, but I've been getting ticked off watching them repeatedly bump us. If I can get a good angle in, then I'll wedge a ramp down on their turf and we can take the fight right to them."

"I'll take our little infiltration group directly into Galbadia while everyone's distracted with fighting on the outside." Irvine volunteered. "Don't worry. I know that place like the back of my hand."

"w00t! Mission Impossible time!" Sharon did a little salute. "Now go and talk to your people."

"Yeah! Everyone looks up to you, Squall!" Selphie did her trademark hop on one foot. "You can't let em down!"

_Dear Hyne, not this again... _Turning around and gingerly picking up the microphone as if it were going to burn him to hold it any tighter, he began his speech. "... Everyone. This is Squall. How's everyone doing?"

"MY HEAD HURTS, DADDY!" Sharon shouted in a cutesy voice, just to have Gina elbow her in the stomach.

"...You're all probably too tired to even stand up after all of that fighting. But I want everyone to listen to me. We still have a chance to win, and I need your help. This is going to be our final battle. We're going to attack them before they come in again. To do that, we're going to ram head-on into their Garden, so prepare for a major collision. Take care of all of the junior classmen. Irvine, Quistis, Zell, Selphie, Regina, and Sharon will lead the attack into their Garden. As for everyone else, please support them if you can."

"But, Daddy, I DUN WANNA GO INTO THE BIG, BAD GARDEN!" Sharon shouted again, throwing a childish tantrum for added effect. Gina elbowed her harder in the stomach this time, and Selphie started to giggle.

"...SeeD was formed to fight the sorceress. Garden was created to train SeeDs. So this battle is Garden's destiny and also OUR destiny. It's a grueling battle, and I'm sure you guys are all exhausted. But I don't want to have any regrets. I don't want anyone to look back and regret this day. So just this once... I want you guys to give everything you've got! For yourselves... and for me!"

Quistis gave a little round of applause, and despite the pain in her stomach, Sharon did an Arsenio Hall fist pump, complete with whooping. If Squall were an anime character, then it would have been just a matter of time before a very large sweatdrop appeared directly over his face. He replaced the microphone and nodded to Nida before getting his footing along with everyone else. The collision that followed was many times more forceful than the previous, but everyone regained their composure and hurried down the elevator to the 2nd floor deck.

Irvine listened to the hollow sound of their footsteps through the first maze of Galbadia Garden's sterile hallways. "Home sweet home," he muttered bitterly, looking around a corner to make sure it was indeed empty. "The sorceress should be here somewhere."

"Remember... she's our enemy now." Squall said. "If we start to remember the past... how it used to be... we won't be able to do what we came here to do. She chose to fight, and became our enemy. It's our destiny to fight back. We've come this far... and there's no turning back."

The orphanage gang held a brief moment of silence, perhaps reminiscing on the happier moments of their childhood. While they did this, Gina tugged on Sharon's arm and pulled her off a bit to the side. "Sharii-chan... you trust me, right?"

Sharon did not like the beginning of this conversation. "I did before you asked me that question."

"I have an idea. I can't explain it thoroughly right now, but when the time comes, don't stop me, okay?"

"... Umm... I have a feeling I'm going to eat my words later, but... okay. I trust you, G-fuu. Just... don't do anything stupid. Okay?" Gina smiled and gave her best friend a big hug. By that time, the group had finished musing and were on their way down the hallways, and Sharon and Gina scuffled to catch up. With Irvine's infallible sense of direction through the many hallways that just seemed the same, they found themselves in the main circular lobby in the front of the Garden.

"Well well well... look what the cat dragged in." A familiar voice sounded from above. Everyone looked around for a moment before their gazes settled on a man in a tan trench coat and close cropped blonde hair leaning on the railing, greeting them as casually as a host would to his house.

"Oh, your mom!" Sharon growled, which got only a smirk and a wave from Seifer.

"You guys really shouldn't have. I was going to come visit you at my old home."

"Shut up." Squall tightened the grip on his gunblade.

"Is that any way to talk to a childhood friend?" Seifer shook his head and made a tsk-tsk sound. "I see now you guys have no respect for the past, now do you? Because if you did, you wouldn't be here to fight Matron. After ALL that she's done for us!"

"Oh, get off of it! You know we're gonna fight, no matter what you say!" Zell retorted. "So cut the halfassed mind-games, will ya!"

"You can't mess with our minds, Seifer." Squall stated, taking a step forward. "To us, you're just another enemy. Another monster."

"You're comparing me to THEM?" Seifer quickly became incensed, for he quickly straightened up. "I ain't no monster. I'm the sorceress' knight. I'm doing something for Matron, unlike the band of you idiots coming in here to KILL her! You're the monsters."

"Would Rinoa agree with you if she were here?" Gina spoke up quietly, but loud enough so that Seifer could hear her. He wavered visibly for a moment, struck by the mention of Rinoa. But he quickly darkened and pointed the tip of his gunblade at Gina forebodingly.

"Oh, please. What do you know? What could an outsider ever know about what goes on here, let alone what's inside everyone else's head! This isn't even your battle, and you know it."

Gina swallowed and kept her gaze neutral and even, but it was still easy to see that Seifer's last comment struck a chord in her that she didn't want to come to terms with just yet. No matter how much she was willing it to stop, her chin started quivering ever so slightly, a sure sign that she was going to cry soon. But everyone jumped about a mile in the air when a warning shot sounded, and Seifer moved to the side and turned slightly to see a bullet hole in the wall right behind him.

"You... bitch. You mother fucking BITCH!" Sharon screamed, reloading her gun quickly. Her whole body was shaking and her face felt like it was on fire. Gina tried to get herself together to get Sharon to calm down, but she was already livid.

"Aww... what's the matter? Upset because I made your wussy friend cry?" Seifer mocked, quickly pushing any buttons that weren't already scathed on Sharon.

"... oh mother fucker..." Sharon took the bait and ran up the stairs three at a time, firing another shot that narrowly missed Seifer's shoulder. As he rushed into the auditorium doors, another one nicked the woodwork on the door that just swung closed.

"THAT'S RIGHT! RUN LIKE THE COWARD YOU ARE!" Sharon continued screaming, covering ground fast. "YOUR ASS... IS MINE!"

The group still standing on the bottom floor exchanged quick glances. "Umm... she's in one of her rare, teetering on insanity anger spurts." Irvine said, heading for the stairs. "If we don't want to see too much blood, I suggest we get in there." Everyone climbed the stairs quickly and clambered to the auditorium.

Sharon stood near the stage, stock-still as if she hit an invisible wall that drained all of her previous energy and anger. She was staring up at the stage as if she were hypnotized, and as everyone gathered around her and looked too, they found out why.

Seifer was standing next to the podium on the stage, looking pretty haughty beside a swirl of green and blue mist that seemed to formulate from nowhere. From that mist appeared a figure in a long black dress, the low-cut collar lined with black feathers. Her headdress jingled with the few steps she took, her hazel eyes seeming to swirl with occasional clouds of green.

"So... the time has come. You are the legendary SeeD destined to face me?" Sorceress Edea's voice rang supernaturally throughout the auditorium, as if amplified by a microphone that wasn't there.

Squall's brow furrowed. _Legendary? What is she talking about?_

"I must say... I am impressed. An impressive nuisance. Your life ends here, SeeD."

"No." The group moved their gaze over to Gina, who took a few steps forward. "No one will die. Not SeeD. Not Edea."

The sorceress' eyes narrowed dangerously. "Worthless fool."

Gina just shook her head and made her way up the auditorium stairs. When her feet touched the top step, Seifer moved forward to intercept her. Gina readied a quick air spell that knocked Seifer off of his course and sent him toppling off of the stage. She sent a quick glance his way to make sure he didn't break anything (especially not his ankle), and walked so she was a few feet apart from the sorceress.

"No." She repeated, her voice and expression eerily calm considering the circumstances. "You are the fool, Ultimecia, if you think you can get away with what you have planned."

_Ultimecia? What in the hell... _Squall started to go up the steps, but was stopped by Sharon. "Wait... wait. Gina... she told me earlier not to interfere. She's got something up her sleeve."

_It better not get her killed._ Squall complied, but kept his gunblade ready to cut the sorceress down if she tried anything. Everyone else seemed caught up in the movie that was playing out on stage.

"You know nothing, child." Edea sneered, familiar swirls of power accumulating around her.

"Do I? I know a lot more than you give me credit for. Haven't you heard?" Gina took another step forward. "I'm psychic. And I know the future. I know your future. I know... that you WILL fail."

Raising her hand, the sorceress formulated another large ice javelin and prepared to fling it directly at Gina. Letting out a terrified shriek, Sharon scrambled up the steps, vaguely aware that Squall had started moving the exact time she did. But before any blows were exchanged, Gina rushed forward and grabbed Edea's raised wrist.

A bright white flash filled the room, seemingly accompanied by an invisible wall of force that knocked everyone backwards and temporarily paralyzed everyone. They could see the ice javelin disperse in midair, and the sorceress dropped her wrist that Gina still had a hold on. As the light slowly started to fade, she moved her head slowly from side to side, as if she were moving underwater. Looking around her, her eyes widened when she saw Squall on the floor of the stage.

"Squall? Quistis? Selphie... Irvine... Zell..." a fond smile spread across her face, one that even Squall's mentally repressed mind recognized and embraced. "You've all grown so much, and become so strong... I have waited for this day to come. I feared that this day would come. Is today a joyous day? Or an odious day..." Her eyes suddenly showed a hint of fear. "Where is Ellone? Have I protected Ellone!"

Everyone stirred and realized that they could once again move. Zell glanced where he thought Seifer fell, and was surprised to see that the young rebel was no longer there. It was as if during the time the flash happened, he had disappeared. He ran a hand over his spiky hair and let his gaze travel up to the stage... and sucked in a breath when he saw that Gina had collapsed.

Unfortunately, this did not go unnoticed by Sharon in the least. She was huddled over her best friend, shaking her and trying to keep herself from being a hysterical mess. Squall swallowed slowly and surveyed the scene. They got their Matron back... but at what price?

* * *

**SLy:** Hehe... you'll find out in these two chapters, ironically. XD

**GurassuShinzo:** Snowball fights are fun! Well, unless somebody thinks it's funny to pack snow around a big chunk of ice and chuck it right at your face (yes, that happened to me back in elementary school. I was PISSED.) Good luck with school and I hope classes treat you better than mine treat me!

**Mudora:** Man, my PMS is basically me eating all the chocolate in sight and sleeping about 12 hours out of the day in small intervals at the worst times. Is it your brother's first year in college? If so, good luck to him; college might seem either really freaking awesome or terribly overwhelming. My updating might slow down with the stress of Chinese and all, but I'm not planning to forget about you all. :D

**QueenAdreena:** Wow, yeah I was wondering what happened to you! I was like "She hasn't been around... DID ANYTHING HAPPEN ZOMG!1" But that's just me panicking for no good reason. Glad to see ya back, though!

**Rae Anderson:** I really don't mean to have cliffhangers; they usually happen when I just forget to update on time because of various issues and then I blink and go "... oh shit. GET ON THE BALL, HYPAA!" But I AM writing more, as much as time allows me to with school rush and all.


	44. Chapter 44

Squall looked over to the half opened door in the remains of Edea's stone house by the ocean... his old home. Out near the garden full of beautiful yellow flowers was Sharon, sitting gazing out at the sight without blinking, like she wasn't really all there. She hadn't said a word after they got Gina to the infirmary where Dr. Kadowaki was watching over her. _She's still in shock..._

Headmaster Cid walked over and placed a reassuring hand on Squall's shoulder. "Still not talking?"

Squall sighed and shook his head. "She won't be okay until she knows Gina is, and not before." _And neither will I._

"I see." Cid moved back over to where his wife was sitting. Edea still donned the black dress, but she managed to take off the elaborate headdress. Her long, brown hair flowed straight down her back like a waterfall, and her eyes no longer held the eerie glow they once had in Deling and in Galbadia Garden. Looking up at her husband, Cid cleared his throat bashfully.

"Well... thank you all for your hard work." He laughed nervously, even though he was in the company with those he'd known for most of his life. "I... hope you're not too angry with me, for not being around when the battle of the century was happening." He scratched his head and studied the floor. "As your Headmaster, I should have done something besides bail out like a coward. I just... couldn't sit still to see the consequences. It was a lose-lose situation. Your defeat meant your demise. Your victory meant that I lost my wife. But what I do ask... is that you don't remain angry at Edea."

"Headmaster, we never were angry at either of you." Quistis spoke up, placing a hand over her heart. "Too much has been going on... we were confused, frightened at times... but we knew what we had to do. Emotions played no part in our duty."

Edea smiled gratefully, but her eyes still held the same hint of fear as they did during Galbadia. "My children... you forgive me, and I'm grateful for that. But I fear it will be awhile until I'm able to forgive myself... especially if it happens again..."

Selphie leaned forward. "What happens?"

Taking a deep breath, the Matron of the group of SeeDs standing around in the battered kitchen explained. "I have been possessed all of this time. A powerful sorceress from the future, named Ultimecia, had... has a goal. She is after Ellone's mysterious power."

Zell stood up. "What? The power to send people to the past? What is she gonna do with that?"

The woman in black shrugged. "Ultimecia... is a very fearful sorceress. Her heart is filled with anger, and hate. I didn't want her to get a hold of Ellone, but her will is powerful... I ended up surrendering my soul to Ultimecia and eventually lost control of my mind. I supposed in a way, it helped keep Ellone safe for a little longer... but the end result..." She looked away.

Irvine stepped forward and knelt down in front of Edea, putting a hand over hers that were folded in her lap. "Listen... we know it wasn't really you doing those horrible things. Our Matron would never do that. We don't want you blaming yourself for something you couldn't control..."

"But Ultimecia has yet to achieve her goal!" Edea cut him off gently, her eyes wavering. "She may use my body again. I plan to make a stand this time... but if I fall prey to her conscious again... then I'll have to face you in battle again!" She bowed her head, trying to will the tears that threatened to escape back into her eyes.

"You won't have to worry about Ultimecia taking over your body or your mind anymore."

Everyone turned to the voice to see a figure shadowing the open doorway to the outside. When the clouds moved overhead, the light shone to reveal that the person was Gina. Despite the fact that she was deep in a coma last time they carried her into the infirmary, she looked and sounded fine.

Cid let out a relieved breath. "Regina! You're all right!"

Gina nodded and gave a half smile, then turned her attention back to Edea. She smiled warmly at her, but her eyes held a tinge of sadness as she did so. "Ultimecia is no longer a concern of yours. She only possesses the bodies of sorceresses."

Zell scratched the back of his head. "Okay, wait. I'm confused. Matron was a sorceress... before Ultimecia possessed her? And... she won't bother Matron anymore because..."

"She's no longer a sorceress." Sharon piped in, leaning against the opposite doorway to the garden. The breeze picked up then, carrying the fragrant aroma of the flowers swirling through the kitchen. She looked at her best friend. "Gina's a sorceress."

Everyone sat for a moment, letting what both girls said soak into their minds for a minute. "So... the white flash... was that when..." Selphie broke the silence.

"Yeah. That was Edea transferring her powers over to me." Gina said flatly.

"If that's true... then you must have already been a sorceress to receive my powers." Edea said, looking up at Gina. At that, everyone in the room did a double take, including Sharon. The part about the white flash and the transfer of powers made some sense, but Gina being a sorceress beforehand? _When... and how in the hell did that happen? _Squall tried to rewind time to find out what he was missing in this puzzle that was quickly becoming greater than him.

Gina nodded and shrugged, a movement that seemed too casual for the weight of the discussion. "You're right. I read a book on random when I was wandering around Balamb Garden one day, and even though I didn't get that far into the book, some stuff clicked." She moved and sat down at the kitchen table, folding her arms in front of her. "Not all sorceresses display their power like Edea or Ultimecia. In fact, most people go through their lives not being aware of what they are. Their powers are dormant. Which is good, because the public probably wouldn't feel too comfortable having someone walk around with the power to destroy cities in a snap of the finger."

Sharon stood straight as if she just got an epiphany. "Oh! Those things you did in Deling! Were those your powers coming out?"

"Yep. I also read that in rare occasions, a dormant sorceress under extreme mental stress will have these bursts where their power temporarily becomes full-fledged. Terrible things can happen at this point in time, since the sorceress loses all control of her body and will 'wake up' later not knowing what happened between the time that she blacked out and the time she returned to full consciousness." Gina once again looked at Edea. "When dormant sorceresses come in contact with a more powerful or full fledged sorceress and acknowledges their power, that's when the transfer occurs. That power is kind of like the theory of energy; it cannot be created or destroyed, just passed on or transferred."

"So... you knew this, yet you still did what you did." Squall pushed himself away from the wall he was leaning against. "You knew what you were doing when you touched Matron. From what I understand, this exchange has to be voluntary. Why?"

Gina looked at him for a second, then looked away. "I couldn't stand there and watch you fight your Matron. Even all of the mental prepping wouldn't have helped you if you had gone and killed her. You think everything is messed up now; you would have completed your mission, but it would have left you with a sour taste in your mouth that would never go away, no matter how many years passed and how often you tried to distract yourself from what you would have done." She gave a small smile.

Squall continued to stare incredulously at Gina. _But what does that solve? Did you think it would be easier for us to fight you rather than fight Matron? What did you hope to accomplish by accepting her powers? If Ultimecia possesses you, then Sharon will be forced to fight, too. How is that any easier? Why am I so upset? I can't... _He closed his mind like a door to keep his thoughts inside. "Ultimecia wants Ellone because she has the power to send people's consciousness to the past. Ultimecia is already in the future, and Matron... well, I guess more appropriately it would be Gina... would be her link to the present, our time. I think... I get it."

"Time compression." Sharon said surely. "Past, present, and future are one. Ultimecia, Gina, and Ellone are like chess pieces... but she's missing one right now and she's trying to get her hands on it to make her plan work."

"Whaddya mean, she has two? She HAS one, and that's her own damn self!" Zell fumed, punching a fist into his palm. "And it's gonna stay that way. I'm not gonna let Gina fall into her hands like Matron was."

"And how do you suppose we do that?" Quistis inquired. Zell looked frustrated with himself for a moment. "Well... I dunno! Maybe we should go looking to find out!"

Selphie bit her lip. "Maybe we should be trying to figure out just what this time compression business is all about. I really don't see what Ultimecia is trying to accomplish by squishing time together in one place like that. If we find out what the big deal is with time compression, then maybe we can..."

"Wait wait wait... I hate to seem like the devil's advocate here, since I care about Gina's well-being too... but shouldn't our first priority be to find Ellone and keep her safe?" Irvine brought up, standing to his feet before his knees got sore from kneeling on the wood floor. "Think about it. It won't matter what Ultimecia does if Ellone is always out of her grasp. We'd save everyone, then."

Sharon furrowed a brow, then shook her head. "Well actually, not quite. Technically, everyone would be saved. But in reality, you would be condemning two people to fates that make them martyrs. Gina would be under lock and key and constant surveillance to make sure Ultimecia doesn't pull some shit, while Ellone would be ushered from place to place, never being allowed to settle anywhere because there would still be a risk that Ultimecia could snatch her up. Both of them would live the rest of their lives in fear. It'd be a sacrifice, but is it worth screwing over two people for the sake of the world? Would you feel comfortable doing that?"

The group fell into silence again as their brains worked to find a solution that could truly save everyone. Gina was itching to say something, but she decided to remain silent and let the story play out as it did. She already sort of did her part to keep the storyline as even as it was. She didn't need to spoon-feed it to them.

Cid cleared his throat and turned to Squall. "Squall, you're the commander. Everything has been in your hands up until this point, and you've proven to be a capable problem solver. It's a tough call, but you have to make the next decision. What are we going to do?"

Squall resisted the impulse to reach up and pull his mop of chestnut hair right off of his head. _Hyne, this is the one thing I don't want to do! Nothing makes sense, and so much is at stake... I don't want to have to make a decision that condemns anybody to anything! But I'm not even sure if that can be done._ "I guess... our first task at hand is to find Ellone," he said slowly, his eyes never leaving Gina. "I believe she's on the White SeeD ship. Once we have her, then we can look into getting help for Gina. Hopefully that includes finding out what's so special about time compression."

Gina stood up. "Ellone is not on the White SeeD ship anymore."

Cid looked at her with a raised eyebrow, and Selphie jumped up. "Oooh! I recognize that tone of voice! It's Gina's psychic voice!" Quistis stifled a giggle at the absurdity of it all, but she couldn't dispute the fact that Gina's hunches were usually right on the money. She could save them some time if she eliminated places where Ellone wasn't held.

"Where would she be, then?" Cid asked. "Unless the White SeeD ship was ambushed, then I'm almost positive she'd be there, where I left her."

Gina turned and looked absentmindedly out of the front door. "She's in the city of Esthar."

Quistis was quiet for a moment. "Esthar... it's rumored that nobody truly knows whether it exists or not. How are we supposed to go looking for a city that may or may not be real?"

"It's real." Edea said, her voice vague as if she were struggling to unearth a memory. She reached out and touched Gina's hand. "You must go find Esthar. There is a doctor there by the name of Odine..."

Zell's eyes got wide. "The guy who makes the famous Odine brand!"

Edea nodded, then continued. "He might be able to save you, or at least protect yourself from Ultimecia's clutches. If you do this, you can save both Ellone and yourself from harsh futures. Maybe even find a way to rid yourself of the sorceress powers..."

Irvine grinned. "Now that's an idea. Always could count on Matron to have the solution to everything."

Cid nodded. "Well, it seems like a plan has been made. Squall, you might be feeling like this is a personal event concerning just those who stand here now, but everyone at Balamb Garden is counting on you, and they are in the dark about what to do next. Since they fought, they need reassurance from their leader in what they should do, or at least go, next."

Squall heaved a big sigh and made his exit, his mind now working out the best way to explain the slew of events that seemed to turn his life upside down so quickly. Everyone else followed him out, but Sharon tagged behind, sticking close to her best friend.

After awhile of walking, Gina spoke. "Odine won't get rid of this power, you know."

Sharon snorted. "You're sounding like Rajin, ya know? But yes... I already figured that. But what I really want to know is the REAL reason you did all of this? If you keep involving yourself deeper with their lives, then you know it'll be even harder for us to..."

"I know, I know." Gina sighed. "But remember when I told you I had an idea?"

"How could I forget?"

"Well... I know it seems like a far off shot, but I had to go for it. That misty cloud Edea liked to use to get around the world so fast... it was like a transport, opening a window so she could pass through effortlessly. I was thinking... if I had that power, then I could find a way to make my own portal. Only this one would..."

"... take us back home." Sharon finished, in awe. "Wow... I never thought of it that way. But wait... would that work? Cause isn't that like time travel? You'd need to do what Ultimecia wants to do to pull something like that off, wouldn't you?"

"Not exactly. I would be making a portal to another place, not another time. The power of time that Ultimecia wants... and will eventually get... is not absolute. Meaning it does not affect what happens in other worlds, like our own. So it would be worthless for me to even do something like Time Compression to get us back home."

"I see... but will the power you have be enough to make that rip in space to take us back to GVSU?"

Gina looked to the sky and studied the light wisps of clouds dancing across its surface. "I don't know, Sharii-chan. I really don't know."


	45. Chapter 45

**A/N:** Man. My life seriously sucks with Chinese in it, no doubt. Okay, so I really REALLY like the language. I just don't like being behind more than usual RIGHT at the beginning of class. Man, I haven't turned on my PS2 since I GOT back to college, much less thought about writing fanfiction. But I also found out that I am supposed to be in Chinese 102, not 201. WELL. That would explain the whole illiteracy thing I have going there. Too bad I can't take Chinese 102 till next semester. :) So for now, I'm stuck sucking at life in 201. Apologies for the long absence, but I couldn't function for awhile there. I think I'll try to write more chapters to help me feel better, even though I REALLY can't afford to procrastinate more than I already have.  
Although watching Advent Children 10+ times in a row really helped me not get too depressed. -pats Sephiroth- That's my One Winged Angel.

* * *

"Hello... I don't see a city."

Everyone couldn't help but agree with the obvious statement Selphie just made as they looked around the desolate rocky confines of the Great Salt Lake. After Squall explained to the rest of Balamb Garden the details of what was happening (minus the part about Gina being a sorceress), they all made their exit after docking at Fisherman's Horizon and walked the painstakingly long railroad track down to the Great Salt Lake borders.

"How quaint." Sharon watched a roll of tumbleweed blow by, just like in those desolate old western movies. "Well... it's supposed to be on the other side of this lake, right? We just got here, so maybe we need to look around before we assume anything."

"But if it's supposedly this really big city, bigger than 20 Deling Cities put together... shouldn't we be able to see it from here? Or at least hear something?" Selphie continued, squinting her eyes and shielding them from the sun as she peered further into the distance.

Gina fidgeted. Of course, she and Sharon knew it was there, just hidden behind a very clever cloaking device. But once again, she couldn't tell them EVERYTHING. It was getting increasingly more difficult to keep her mouth shut about these things, especially when to the rest of the group the situation seemed to be hopelessly stuck. But while they were prepping up for this journey to a city most of them were skeptical of even existing, Gina and Sharon holed themselves up in their dorm room to discuss the idea of going home and whether it would work or not in further detail.

Gina knew it was basically their only hope of getting home. She also knew it was a very big risk, knowing that she was technically at Ultimecia's mercy. But it was better than just giving up and staying in a world that shouldn't exist by any rational thought process. _It's fun to escape reality... but only if you know that you can't do it forever. _Both of them did agree, however, to not just bail out on the group until their inevitable battle with Ultimecia was done and over with. Gina was so afraid that they would never get anywhere, especially since she and Sharon fucked up the storyline the moment they left Rinoa back in Timber. Sometimes it was scary to think that Gina alone was driving the story in the right direction; whether or not everything she had been experiencing and the people she had come to know up to that point were real or not, the responsibility weighing on her shoulders was a bit terrifying.

"Let's just keep moving." Squall said, walking ahead and working to make his way through the wide cracks in the white valley. Everyone followed their leader, keeping their eyes open for anything that relatively looked like a city.

Sharon took her cowboy hat off of her head to vent some heat off of her. _It must be like, 90 degrees right now or something. How in the hell do you go from one place to another in such a short amount of time, and the temperature change this drastically? And I thought Michigan had freaky weather patterns... _Her eyes wandered off to the side, taking in the makeshift lake that seemed to stretch for miles in either direction. As remote as it was, it struck a chord of serenity inside Sharon, much like the feeling of standing at the shoreline of the ocean and gazing at the endless waves of blue. _Maybe this journey isn't so bad, after all..._

At least, that's what she thought before she didn't look where she was going and fell flat on her face.

_My god..._ Sharon pulled herself halfway up and checked to see if anyone saw her once again pull off the most graceful bouts of idiotic clumsiness. She breathed a sigh of relief when she saw the rest of the group a couple of yards ahead, not realizing that she had most literally fallen behind. _Nice going, Sharon. You are most definitely the most accident-prone black girl in Final Fantasy history._ After checking to see if she dropped anything, she saw that she tripped over a half upraised knotted tree root. _I should really start picking up my feet when I walk. _She sat up, brushing the sparkling white dust off of her vest.

The tree root moved.

Sharon blinked, thinking that it was the heat making mirages. But when it moved again and in greater increments, she started getting that tingling in the back of her neck whenever she knows something bad is going to happen. Nonetheless, she stared with her mouth hanging open as the thing she thought was a tree root detach itself from the ground. Moments later, identical tree roots unearthed, joined together by something larger that seemed like a hand. A larger root that was attached to that ripped from underneath the ground, and Sharon rolled to the side as it seemed the land she was sitting on was breaking apart to whatever was waking up. When she got her bearings straight again, she was looking up at a skeletal monstrosity that towered at least 30 feet above her, it's eyeless sockets glaring down at her as if it was highly pissed at her audacity of tripping over its finger.

So... Sharon did the only thing one could do in that kind of situation. She opened her mouth and let loose the loudest possible ear-splitting scream.

Gina turned around immediately, as if an alarm went off in her brain. "Sharii-chan?"

"Hyne, what IS that thing?" Quistis covered her mouth with a hand.

Irvine shook his head. "Your guess is as good as mine. But whatever it is, it's going to eat her if we don't do something."

"It can't eat her! It's just a hunk of bone structure!" Zell sputtered, cracking his knuckles and mentally formulating how he could dismantle it.

_Just a hunk of bone structure..._ Gina's eyes lit up when she recognized the fiend to be the boss Abadon. _I can't believe I forgot about that! It should be undead, so... _Gina concentrated and raised a hand to conjure a quick spell to vaporize the beast.

The clouds seemed to part in a circle above Abadon's figure, and in an instant, several thin beams of light shot down and pierced the monster from the heavens. Almost as if it were in a cartoon, Abadon stood unmoving for a moment before dismantling in a bony heap like it were put together just seconds before by a faulty glue stick.

Gina's mouth dropped. "Oops..."

Squall raised an eyebrow. "What? You killed it."

"I know... but uh... I was just looking for a life spell to take it down, just like the fake president in Timber. Didn't mean for a Holy spell to come out instead."

Sharon scrambled to her feet and burned over to where they were all standing and promptly attached herself to Gina's arm. "Oh my god, thank you thank you thank you! G-fuu, you're the best friend EVER!"

Selphie tilted her head to the side. "So... if she can use Holy as easily as that... does that mean she could use something REALLY powerful like..." Her voice dropped to a confidential whisper. "... Ultima?"

"I suppose. She's a sorceress now, so any of the magical arts are at her disposal." Quistis mused. "Of course, this is why most of society is so terrified of sorceresses."

_And SeeD was formed to dispose of any threats to society, most notably any sorceresses. _Squall still wasn't comfortable with the idea that he was supposed to kill a girl that was standing less than a couple of feet away from him. _That's why we're going to Esthar, so we can find a way to cure her of that power. I still don't know how everything got so messed up so fast... _"... did you guys see that flicker?"

"Uh... what flicker?" Zell turned around in a circle.

Everyone followed Squall's gaze to what seemed more endless plains of white sand until the scenery flickered slightly, as if a videotape was distorting on a TV screen. Sharon clung tightly onto Gina's arm. "That's kinda giving me the creeps... reminds me of The Ring..."

"Hey, is this thing real?" Selphie walked up to the edge, stared at the flicker for a few more moments... then brought out her nunchaku and whacked it. Before anyone could protest, the flickering stopped and completely disappeared to reveal rungs leading up to a round, dark hole that seemed to impossibly lead into thin air.

"What the hell... some kind of tunnel?" Zell inspected it closer.

"But I fixed the flickering!" Selphie did a little dance.

"... the flickering is nothing compared to that damn hole. I'm creeped out for no good reason, now." Sharon untangled herself from Gina and folded her arms. "I ain't going in there."

Irvine smirked and made claws with his hands. "But if you don't, Mr. skeleton might come back and eat you up."

Sharon sucked her teeth and glared at him from the corner of her eye. "That's not funny." But she was the first one up those rungs and climbing into the tunnel. Slowly but surely, she continued crawling forward until she popped out of the lighted end onto a very large platform, suspended by what seemed to be very complex and powerful mechanical arms. Everything around her was black, empty space.

"Okay... everyone stand in the VERY CENTER." Gina's eyes darted all over when the rest of them arrived, the idea of standing on a platform without any kind of guardrails effectively irritating her paranoia. Suddenly but smoothly, the mechanical arms began moving, carrying them upwards.

"Man, this is so wicked cool!" Zell exclaimed. "Our own personal elevator!"

"It's not safe. It's going too fast. And there are NO RAILINGS to prevent from possible falls to irrevocable death." Gina bit her non-existent fingernails, this time being the one to cling tightly to her best friend.

"Hey, you know what I used to do in elevators?" Selphie said, her eyes sparkling. "I used to wait until it was moving, then..."

"... jump up and down to feel lighter or heavier, depending on which direction they were moving at the time?" Sharon finished, a childlike expression on her face. "That's so fun! Let's do it now!" Both girls started hopping on invisible pogo sticks. Quistis let out a small giggle, and Zell joined in. Gina almost had a heart attack.

"Okay, could we please stay focused?" Squall ordered, placing a hand on his forehead in exasperation.

"Aww, you're no fun!" Selphie pouted, but stopped hopping.

"But the whole lift might BREAK if you jump on it!" Gina hissed, slightly pale. "Then we would all fall and die."

Irvine looked over at her, a half amused expression on his face. "Oh, come on. Don't you think that's a little overboard? It would take something like an elephant jumping on this thing for it to break."

Gina looked indignant. "But what if some screws were loose, and a bunch of people jumping on it would upset the balance, therefore causing the platform to tilt, and since there are no footholds on this surface whatsoever, we would all slide to one side, and be dumped off into space, which eventually would lead to a bottom, which would inevitably lead to death."

Irvine blinked at her, and then looked to Squall as if to ask "Is she serious?" Squall's audible response was the trademark "Whatever."

"It stopped." Quistis noted. She looked around thoroughly though, and found her surroundings no different than what they all started out with. "Umm... is this it?"

A moment of silence lapsed, everyone dumbfounded and not knowing what to do next. Nobody was going to take a chance of finding some sort of invisible platform, because if they were wrong then it certainly wouldn't be worth the risk. Then a slight flicker in the pitch black caught the group's attention. Like a spark to a fire, the flicker spread outwards like a nova, peeling back the darkness to reveal the crown jewel that was the enormous technological city of Esthar. The sun glinted majestically off of curved metallic walkways and accented the futuristic designs of what seemed to be thousands of buildings. Many people walked the light blue streets lined with orange, and every now and then a transporter whizzed by, acting as an efficient public transportation system to many unseen destinations.

Sharon almost fainted dead on the spot, but thankfully she just continued to feel dazed and extremely lightheaded at the scene that unfolded in front of her. "This is... THE most beautiful thing I've ever seen in my entire, pathetic, meaningless existence. I think I'm going to cry."

Squall gave her a weird glance, but Gina just waved him off. "Her weakness are cities. Big ones. The bigger the city, the more she falls in love with it. Seeing as though this city could take up half a state, I'm surprised she hasn't started drooling yet."

_It is a pretty amazing sight... no wonder they had this thing hidden. _Squall realized that while everyone was dumbstruck by the spectacular view, the platform had begun moving again to rest at a larger platform connected to a tunnel that lead to the city. Just as they all filed off to stand there, a familiar woozy feeling washed over him. _No... bad timing! _He fell unconscious shortly afterwards, followed by Zell and Selphie.

"Let me guess... the 'dream world' again?" Quistis stated. "Those seem to happen at the most inopportune moments..."

"Tell me about it." Irvine griped. "I mean, it only happened to me once, but it has got to be the trippiest feeling to be trapped in somebody else's body and not do anything but be a first person spectator to everything that's going on. I wonder what Ellone's point to doing all of this is for..."

"There's probably something she wants you all to see." Gina said vaguely. "Can't say what it is, though..."

The cowboy looked at her thoughtfully. "You know... sometimes I think you know a lot more than you let on, and you're just letting us fumble around until we figure it out on our own. Am I right?"

Gina turned and smiled mischievously. "Maybe..."

Before any further interrogation could ensue, the conscious members of the group were altered to Sharon's occasional sniffing.

"... man, she wasn't lying. She really WAS going to cry." Irvine stared incredulously.

"But... I can't help it... it's so pretty..." Sharon wiped a tear away. "I'm the biggest dork alive, I know. But I wish I could live here."

Quistis gave her a sympathetic look. "When all of this has been dealt with, you could come back for a lengthy visit, perhaps?"

To this, Sharon's mood seemed to turn blue. "I wish I could do that, too..." She whispered. Gina scuffled over and hugged her tightly. "It's okay, Sharii-chan. Everything's gonna be fine soon."

Irvine and Quistis looked at each other. Cryptic phrases and seemingly random bouts of sadness were becoming commonplace for the two girls. It wouldn't have been so mind-boggling if they knew what started it all in the first place, but the answer to that seemed to be as evasive as all of the other problems they were facing at the moment. Both of them remained silent until Squall, Zell, and Selphie stirred awake from their 'dream'.

"So... how was it?" Irvine asked.

Squall shook his head, slightly disoriented. "Weird, as always. Laguna almost killed a moomba, jumped out of a moving car, and got lost in a building. The only important part was that Ellone was kidnapped as a child and brought here for experimentation, by none other than Dr. Odine himself."

"Say what?" Sharon interjected, her past sadness forgotten. "The same Odine that's supposed to be helping Gina? If he's some shady ass character, then I'm not gonna let him five feet within Gina."

They were all distracted by an automobile rolling casually through the tunnel and coming to a stop in front of them. A man in a suit stepped out and approached them formally. "May I please ask what your presence at the city of Esthar is regarding?"

Squall cleared his throat. "We are SeeDs from Balamb Garden, here to see Dr. Odine and also determine the whereabouts of Ellone. I know this seems sudden, but I have a letter here from Sorceress Edea that explains briefly our purpose for being here. I can also explain more thoroughly once we are allowed to see Dr. Odine." He handed a folded piece of paper to the man, who took it and read over its contents quickly before nodding.

"Please, come with us." He opened one of the back doors of the large car.

"I GET WINDOW SEAT!" Sharon dove headfirst into the car.

Zell was shortly behind her, grabbing at one of her legs still sticking out of the side of the vehicle. "Hey, no fair! I wanted the window!"

Selphie jumped past him and climbed in the car. "There are two seats next to a window. Whoever gets those, I'm sitting in their lap so I can see, too!"

Irvine snapped to attention at Selphie's last remark. "Okay, I'm getting the other window seat."

"But I called it after Sharon! That's double not fair!" Zell started to whine, trying to get in the car before Irvine took the other seat.

Quistis, Gina, Squall, and the man still holding the door open looked like they were about to start sweat dropping at the scene they were all making. If they couldn't figure out where to sit in a car, how in the hell did they expect to save the world from a sorceress from the future?

* * *

**kaibasquallsgirl07**: It stopped... because I suck at life and can't get my chapters out on time. My priorities were forcibly shifted towards that thing called school that I try to ignore each and every year. But ya know... I've been doing pretty good for 4 years of not really doing jack shit in college, it's about time something gave me a run for my money. It's just depressing. lol. But the whole "rock like a roll" comment brightened me here are two new chapters:D?

**Akiraine of Gia**: Story alert... you know, that's a good idea. I never really thought about putting any stories on story alert... mostly because I come back like a crack addict almost every other day checking to see if my favorite stories have been updated and then whining like a little child when I realize that they aren't. But it's not like I can complain anymore; I'm now one of those people whose lives get over-involved with the play time, so I couldn't update for awhile. And no problem for the name of the song: it rawks, so I want to share it. And also thanks for luck in CHI 201... I'm certainly going to need that. And heavenly intervention.

**kmsaum**: Eeep? Intrigued? Yay! I did something right! -does a little dance- Hope you're still intrigued by the end, whenever I get there.

**SLy**: WHAT you got 20 bucks for betting on the outcome of this fic? You should be ashamed of yourself! ... AHAHA joke, I probably would've done the same thing myself, and charged intrest for each additional gripe. hehehe. Yeah, I heard that Chinese people who don't speak Chinese get it extra hard to try to be perfect at the language... my friend Adam got a lot of that when we actually went to China, and those are adventures all of their own. Shit, I could even make a fanfiction about our adventures. But anyway... xie xie!

**Mudora**: Sub plots and main plots? There are? Crap... I didn't think I was smart enough to keep those kinds of things going through my brain at one time. I get too impatient for too much intricacy... but I guess I somehow pulled it off without realizing it in this fic. Interesting. And be sure that there will be more inadvertent cliff hangers to come. Whee!


	46. Chapter 46

Squall took a much needed breather. He had just finished explaining to the President's Aide their reasons for being at Esthar, this time explaining Gina's situation in its entirety. In just a short while, they had all been dropped off at the front of the towering Presidential Palace, where they took a lift to one of the elegant waiting rooms on the first floor.

"So... you need to see Dr. Odine to help the sorceress be rid of her power, and you also want to see Ellone." The aide repeated the most important points of the story. Squall nodded.

"All of which iz easy." The group turned to see a stout little man of about 4'5 waddle into the room. His hair was pulled tightly into a stiff ponytail that stuck straight up on the top of his head, and his clothing choice was just as strange as the man itself. Navy blue billowing slacks that dragged the floor, accompanied by a purple shirt that looked like the top half of a kimono seemed to dwarf the tiny doctor. The entire outfit was finished with an outrageously red and yellow frilled collar that stuck out in a 12 inch radius around his neck.

Sharon burst out laughing. "What the HELL? The infamous Odine's secret fetish is being a CIRCUS CLOWN?"

The doctor frowned, almost a comical expression on his tiny face. "Odine always dresses in ze most unique fashionz to distinguish himzelf from ze crowd."

As Gina got Sharon to stop laughing before she became hysterical, Squall cleared his throat. "So, when do we get to see Ellone?"

"I will give ze permission... under one condition." He turned towards Gina. "You will let me examine this girl."

"And I will let you walk away with your head intact if you don't lay one hand on my best friend." Sharon stated flatly, her earlier amusement dispersing quickly.

"Well, how else do you suppose he help Gina rid of her powers? By osmosis?" Quistis countered. "Don't be so protective."

"Don't be protective? Of Gina?" Sharon gestured to make her point. "First off, that's never gonna happen. Second, do you even blame me for being skeptical of a man who looks like he should be balancing a beach ball on the tip of his ponytail in the middle of a ring?"

Squall heaved a big sigh. "Calm down, will you? You're beginning to be irrational." He looked to Dr. Odine. "What exactly are you planning to do?"

"Well, Odine cannot divulge ze complexities of hiz research, but since you want to see ze Ellone anyway, it involves preparing her for ze transportation to space."

"Space? The hell?" Zell blinked. "Don't you have a laboratory here?"

"There iz only so much I can do here in Esthar. I must hand ze sorceress over to ze Lunar Base so that she may be observed without harm to ze public." Odine explained.

Sharon opened her mouth to protest again, but Gina stood up and cut her off. "I understand. I'll agree to this examination."

The Presidential Aide nodded. "We will need time to prepare before you can be transported to space. In the meantime, you'll be in our care." He turned to the rest of the group. "Ellone is at the Lunar Base. As there can be only three personal capsules launched at one time, only two of you can go with the sorceress when we launch. When everything is ready, then just rent a car and drive over to the Lunar Gate, which is a ways east of the city. Until then, I would suggest taking a tour of Esthar. It is truly a beautiful city."

"We'll do that." Squall said, and motioned for everyone to prepare to leave. Sharon rushed forward and clung to her best friend desperately. "I swear... I'm really starting to hate this whole game of musical chairs where I don't see you for long periods of time..."

"I know, Sharii-chan, I know..."

"You really okay with all of this?"

"... to be honest, I'm terrified. For the first time since we've been here, I'm going to be by myself. It isn't any easier to go through with this as it is for you, but I know it has to be done for numerous reasons."

"Yeah. I think that's the most sucky part about this whole thing."

Gina pulled back and looked up at Sharon. "You're coming with me, right? When they launch me to space?"

"Do you even need to ask? If I have to, I'll cling to the top of the capsule to get there. I'm not leaving you hanging." Sharon gave another reassuring squeeze.

Gina stepped back. "Do me a favor. Do LOTS of sightseeing for me, okay?" She smiled.

"You bet. I think I might hit up that shopping mall like whoa." As Sharon turned to leave, she added to the aide and Odine, "If anything happens to Gina by any fault of yours, I will find you and kill you." With that, she followed the rest of the group out of the room.

The aide swallowed nervously. "Umm... is she always like that?"

Gina nodded. "Yep. But I wouldn't worry too much; Sharii wouldn't do anything drastic." She stopped and thought for a moment. "Well, then again, the last person to make me cry found a bullet whizzing past his ear, so maybe you SHOULD worry a little bit."

The aide's face was visibly a few shades paler than before.

* * *

Sharon stretched as she stepped back out into the large courtyard. "SO! Where are we going now?"

Squall shrugged, looking as though he was half in deep thought. "Anywhere we want, I suppose."

"WHOOHOO!" Selphie jumped. "This place is awesome! I can't wait to check everything out!"

"Me too... but we need to figure out where to hit first." Zell peered at the list of places the city transporter system goes. "This thing takes us to loads of different places so we don't get turned around."

Sharon let out a snort. "The transporter is either for people who are too tired, too lazy, or too wimpy to walk. If I'm going to tour this city, I'm gonna do it the old fashioned way."

Zell looked completely incredulous. "After we walked the whole way here to begin with? This place is HUGE!"

She let out a dreamy sigh. "I know. Isn't it incredible?"

Squall saw her drift into a shallow daze of euphoria. _She's probably going to drool all up and down Esthar's streets until it's time for launch. _"Have it your way. The rest of us fall into the category of being too tired, so we're taking the transport."

"Are you gonna be okay by yourself?" Selphie asked, looking slightly worried.

Sharon blinked as if coming down from a cloud. "Oh, yeah. I'm a grown-up now. I'll just wander around for a bit, maybe do some shopping, and meet up with you guys at the car rental when I'm done."

When they had finally separated, Sharon took a deep breath and picked a direction and just started walking. Truth be told, she was probably just as tired as the rest of them, but she really wanted to be alone. A brisk walk always cleared her mind, and as long as the city of Esthar was free to do the walking, she'd be more than content.

She started by picking up a city map and trying to decipher the many different roads and where they eventually ended up, but that turned out to be a big mistake, as she became even more confused when she just skimmed over it. _Eh, I'll just wander around aimlessly. At least they have arrows on the streets and stuff, so I won't be so horribly lost if I just pay attention to those. _Sharon followed random groups of people to different places, ranging from plazas to office buildings and apartments. She even slipped in with a tour group of what was apparently the world's largest aquarium, housing over two million species of fish.

At first, Sharon was keeping herself super busy to prevent from dwelling on the fact that Gina wasn't with her. It was hard at first, but since she was so in love with Esthar in the first place, she eventually became just like a curious child that had its first taste of real freedom, running from one event to the next. Somewhere along the way, she ended up at the shopping mall. The first thing Sharon noticed about it was that instead of climbing multiple stories like the malls she was used to seeing, it was all on one level that curved around in a large circle. Some of the stores were really just high tech vending machines that involved a transparent touch screen. As reliable and efficient as they were, Sharon missed the familiarity of doing business with a human face.

One of the familiar waves of dejavu passed over her. Her mind traveled to the times that she and her Mom would always go mall trolling. They didn't have to buy anything (although a lot of the times, they usually would leave the mall with a crapload of shopping bags and credit card bills to match), but they still enjoyed going to a different mall every weekend and enjoying their time together. As Sharon walked in one store and out of the other, she went through the same movements in her minds eye, reminiscing about little things like her Mom complaining about Hot Topic's loud music, Sharon complaining about her Mom spending over three hours at a time in JC Penny's, and the joy of getting more cookies than they need to ever eat at Mrs. Fields. Before she realized it, her eyes were tearing up and she had to remove her glasses to wipe them before she attracted any unwanted attention.

_This is getting retarded. You escape from one problem just to cry over the next. _Sharon wandered into a bookstore, much like Barnes and Noble back home. Relieved to see that it was one of the stores that had human attendants, she walked up and down the aisles before walking to the very back of the store. The entire back wall was one huge window that gave a fantastic view of the city as well as the Presidential Palace. She gazed for a long while before making herself sit down at a nearby table. As an afterthought, she looked and saw a couple of books piled on the surface in front of her, and she picked up a random one and started reading.

The book happened to be long documentary about therare occurrence of the Lunar Cry. Despite it being filled of almost nothing but facts and figures, Sharon found herself heavily engrossed in its contents. It wasn't until some time passed and she figured she should be heading over to the Car Rental that she put down the book and cracked her stiff neck.

That's when she looked across the table and saw that Irvine was casually seated.

"AAUUURGH, WHAT THE FU..." Sharon breathed before she caused a scene. "When did you get here?"

He shrugged. "Oh, I dunno... I've been here for a few minutes. I'm surprised you didn't sense my presence and breathe fire before I even sat down."

"Yeah well, I was reading. Something you might want to do one of these days." She retorted.

"I do read. I just find reading people a lot more interesting."

Sharon rolled her eyes and picked back up her book and continued reading. "So, why aren't you with Selphie?"

"I didn't know I had to be attached to her hip at all times."

"Of course you do, stupid. It's part of that whole relationship thing."

"What whole relationship thing?"

Sharon peered over the edge of the book at him as if he just became the most retarded person on the planet. "Uh... I knew you were dense, but this is just ridiculous. Selphie... likes you. You flirt with her. Therefore, there is a relationship." She said as if she were explaining the basics of addition to a small child.

Irvine stared at her for a second as if she were speaking Greek, then sat forward in his chair. "Okay, what about this. You like me. I flirt with you, too. You hide your feelings by pretending to be mad at me all the time. You also bend over backwards to fix me up with Selphie. Therefore, I figured you out." He said in the same tone Sharon used with him.

Now it was Sharon's turn to look at him as if he were speaking another language. "Don't tell me you've been thinking about this ever since the time you appeared to make my life a living hell."

He shook his head. "Nope. Only since that time in D-District Prison. And then it's only off and on. It's hard to forget about things like that when you continue to make it so painfully obvious."

Sharon let out a loud sarcastic laugh. "HA! You really are full of yourself if you believe that load of crap. For your information, I noticed that Selphie had a crush on you, so I just did a little handiwork to help both of you out. I can't even believe I'm entertaining this conversation in the least."

"I can't believe you're still denying the truth that's staring you in the face."

"My god, what the hell IS this? Why can't you just drop it?"

"Why can't you just say it?" Irvine pressed.

Sharon looked as if she was just asked to clean fifty houses in less than two hours. "Say WHAT?"

"That you are deeply, madly in love with me." He spelled out.

A flurry of reactions from Sharon happened in the course of five seconds. First, she reared her hand back as if she were going to haul the book at his face. Then she snapped it back down to the table. Then she half got out of her seat as if she were going to personally beat him down. Then she sat back down. Then she clutched at her hair as if she were going to tear it out in a mad frenzy, but stopped that almost as soon as her hands reached her strands. Finally, she thudded her forehead on the table in front of her with a gigantic sigh and was still. "My lord, my lord... why has thou forsaken me?" She muttered into the table. After a couple of moments, she tilted her head slightly upwards to look at Irvine. "Just what, my dear, irrevocably stupid cowboy, do you hope to accomplish by single-handedly causing the blood vessels in my brain to pulse painfully against my skull?"

"I just want to hear it from you. Drop all of the bells and whistles, cover-ups and pretenses, and say it just like it is." He folded his arms behind his head and crossed his legs, leaning back in the chair so it tipped slightly, as if he were preparing to watch TV.

Sharon stared at the smooth surface of the semi-translucent table, absently wondering just what kind of material they make half of the stuff she'd seen thus far in the entire city. Finally sitting up straight, she clasped her hands in front of her as if she were at a job interview.

"Hello, I am Sharon-Ann Renee Richardson Glenn Myers Goins Gladden, and I am deeply, madly in love with Irvine Kinneas." She stated in a monotone voice. "From the first time I met him, he pissed me the fuck off. But that was only because his irresistible charms had an effect on me, and to admit that would be to admit a weakness. Not to mention I love the way he talks, the way his hair hangs in his eyes, and wears his cowboy hat. When we argue, I don't mean any of the things I say, but it serves as a way for us to be connected without me having to admit a damn thing. Mostly I do it just so I can see him wink at me." She paused to plaster a very wide smile on her face as she looked at him from across the table.

"But then, the day came when I noticed that I was fooling myself. To crush on and flirt with a guy who will not matter when it comes time for me to go back to my own world is very stupid, indeed. Especially when his life is already tied with a girl he's known for longer and deserves to have him ten times more than I ever would. Upon cresting my epiphany, I did everything in my power to make sure the cutest couple in the world would indeed be fixed together, trying to fix my personal err. The struggle still continues to this day." Sharon finished, and blinked two times. "Now my question, should you choose to answer it, is if you believed every single word, minus the said bells and whistles, cover-ups and pretenses, I just told you."

Irvine sat in the very same position he took at the beginning of this little spiel, except now his face held the most dumbfounded expression. After a moment's silence, he smiled. "Why yes, I do believe it. Every single word."

Sharon breathed a tremendous sigh of relief. "Good. Now run along and find Selphie." She stuck her head back into her book even though she had forgotten where she left off.

"I will in a minute. First I have to plan our first date."

There was a clang as the book dropped noisily onto the table. "You can't be serious."

"Indeed I am. I waited long enough for you to finally just come out and say it so we can get the ball rolling. We wasted so much time just arguing. Where do you like to eat?"

Sharon could absolutely not believe what was happening. "You asshole! Do you understand how stupid it would be to drop the person you were destined to be with since the beginning of your puny existence for someone who abuses you verbally and physically, and ultimately should not exist in your world by any natural means?"

Irvine put a finger to his chin and looked to the sky for a moment, then continued grinning. "It is rather stupid, now that you mention it." Then he shrugged. "Oh well. The one push down that snowy gorge and the slap that followed doesn't really count as physical abuse since that was the only case, right? You always said I was retarded, anyway. So, umm... what kind of movies do you like?"

"This date will never occur. I vehemently refuse to be the reason you dump Selphie. I would never forgive myself if that were to happen. In fact, I will let her kill me just so she can be with you, so you won't be distracted. All that I said before? That was a lie. I am the queen of bullshitting, so I was not surprised that you bought it. Now please, save your punkass the trouble and just-"

The cowboy held up a finger to silence her. "Technically, I cannot dump Selphie, since we never dated. She would not kill you either; she's hyper, not crazy. In fact, she knows just as well as I do what was going on. I know that all you said was NOT a big lie, even though you are still the queen of bullshitting since the biggest trick in the world is to deceive yourself for so long." He paused, then looked at her with shining blue eyes. "I know! This can be our first date!" He grabbed her hand and pulled her to her feet. "We can look at the city through that window. I know you like the city."

Sharon could practically feel the world's biggest sweatdrop formulating at the center of her forehead, surrounded by tons and tons of tiny ones as she let herself be dragged to the window by a guy who had lost his fucking mind. She made herself look out to the busy city, aware that he was still holding her hand, and that her other hand was holding a book. Sharon felt very, very stupid.

"Esthar is really nice, isn't it?" Irvine said.

Sharon blinked at him from the corner of her eye. "Why yes. It certainly is. They sure did a number on the Presidential Palace, didn't they?" Right after she said it, she slapped her forehead with the book. "This is THE MOST fucked up thing I have EVER done in my ENTIRE-" She was cut off once again by Irvine wheeling her around to face him. "I'd wish you'd stop interrupting me." She muttered icily.

"I know, but we kinda gotta hurry because Squall's probably waiting for us at the Car Rental." Irvine rambled. "But anyway, to end this date, you now have to kiss me."

"FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, MAN, HASN'T THIS GONE FAR ENOUGH!"

"You'll feel a lot better if you do."

"I will NOT kiss you in the middle of a fucking _bookstore_!" Sharon's voice reached a high trill.

"I've done it all the other times. Now it's your turn. Think of it as 'part of the whole relationship thing'."

At that point in time, Sharon realized a lot of things. One was how completely and utterly annoying Irvine Kinneas never failed to be. Two was how futile it was to keep arguing, since there was no way she was going to get out of this. Third was that if she went through with the entire escapade, she would be giving truth to the entire story she rattled to him earlier. Sharon would never give truth to anything that was thoroughly false, no matter how good of a bullshitter she may be.

So she threw caution to the wind, wrapped her arms around his neck, and kissed him.

* * *

**A/N:** Yes, that is actually my full name. It's long as hayel.


	47. Chapter 47

**A/N:** Nope, I didn't die. Midterms combined with writers block don't do me any good. I remember the days when I used to update like the plague. Now... I have lots of things on my mind that don't allow me to do that. It sucks. But this story WILL continue. I keep wondering when I get to the 50th chapter, will I have 100 reviews? I've never had 100 reviews before... okay, I'm not used to having reviews PERIOD, so this is a surprise to me. And it's all because of you guys, the faithful readers. I'm grateful, really. Never thought it would be this story that would get this far.

* * *

"So, who's going?"

Squall folded his arms after one of the Lunar Gate's staff presented the question. Before he could say or do anything else, Sharon raised her hand. "Me. Wherever Gina goes, I go with her." She wished that her voice was somewhat a bit more confident than it came out sounding, but even Sharon couldn't hide the fact that she was nervous.

Zell looked over. "Dude... never thought you'd be the one to be jumpy over something like this."

Sharon attempted to snort casually while mentally commanding her leg to stop doing that all-too familiar nervous twitch. During the car ride there, she was pretty much okay. In fact, she had been rather excited about being somewhat reunited with Gina again. But when Sharon had stepped out of the vehicle and took a good look at the structure that was going to be responsible for her body being shot up into space, it was as if her brain finally realized what she was going to do.

"Let me give you a quick explanation about the whole process. First, we need you to enter the capsule inside this pipe." The staff person gestured briefly towards a large yellow tube that looked a lot like tunnels used to propel money to the clerk when depositing a check from the drive through window. "Here, you'll undergo the 'cold sleep' process. Once this process is complete, your capsule will automatically be loaded into the booster. After that, we launch. You should be there by the time you wake up. Just leave the rest to the staff once you arrive."

Sharon cleared her throat. "Uh... let me get this straight. I will walk into that egg looking thingy inside of that tube that looks like an oversized kiddie straw. Then I will be frozen, shot into space at almost the speed of light, and microwaved to be rapidly unthawed. Am I right?"

"I won't say there isn't a risk involved." The Lunar Gate's staff replied.

"Oh, I know you wouldn't. That's like telling a patient at a doctor's office that the kemo therapy that they'll be submitted to has a chance of killing them just as fast as the cancer they're trying to cure. But uh... can ya at least give me a life to death ratio or something?"

Squall sighed, placing his fingertips to his forehead. "If he told you, would that prevent you from going?"

Sharon hesitated. "... no. Gina and I are in this together."

"Then that automatically answers all of your questions." The commander turned to the rest of the group. "I'll be going also, to talk to Ellone. Once we return, we'll figure out the next course of action. Until then... Zell, I'm leaving you in temporary command of the group."

"WHOO HOO!" Zell pumped a fist in the air. "Don't worry Squall, I won't let you down."

"Ooooh, I want a souvenir!" Selphie bounced, and then paused to think about it. "Then again, I don't know if there is a gift shop on the Lunar Base..."

"Hell, there should be. The least they can do is give you a complimentary gift for surviving the whole damn thing." Sharon retorted, eyeballing the contraption once again.

Quistis placed a hand on her shoulder. "I wouldn't worry about it. This city is technologically advanced beyond its time. Out of all the other cities in the world, I would feel most comfortable taking a space trip from Esthar."

"This is the same city that had a friggin' glitch in their invisible Great Salt Lake energy barrier. I don't want this thing to glitch when I get in it and I end up with my brains coming out of my ears or something."

"Ah, she's just worried that she'll never get to see me again." Irvine put in, causing Sharon to growl and glare at him. "What? Are we still in denial?" He continued with a mischievous wink.

"... Fuck you. Fuck you, AND the fucking horse you fucking rode in on." Sharon stormed up the steps to the small compartment in the tube and set herself inside before anyone could see her cheeks burning up. _Goddamnit, I hate that cowboy. _Ever since the whole scene in the bookstore, she'd been so frustrated with what to do with herself. Before, it seemed only an issue of getting rid of him, but now her emotional barrier had tremendous cracks in it. It was as if her hormones were finally becoming aware of all of Irvine's constant flirting. Not only was it a blow to her ego, she also realized that she had let him get way too close for it to be an easy task to say goodbye when the time came for she and Gina to return home.

Watching the lid slowly latch into place, Sharon blinked at the sudden darkness around here and tried her best not to form claustrophobia. _Shit. Quick, think about something else. _Her mind wandered back to the gang as she was slightly aware of a low hissing sound stirring up in the background. _Was there ever a time where it would've been easy to say goodbye to them? _For the short time Sharon and Gina encountered them on GVSU's otherwise relatively boring and monotonous campus, they were attached enough to jump through an unknown portal just to see them again. Her eyes began drooping as she began feeling sleepy. Was it futile to even attempt to be detached from the very moment they caught sight of them at Kliener? Or was it futile from the days when they first figured out what Final Fantasy was?

* * *

Zell squinted up at the sky, shielding his eyes the best he could from the blazing sun as he watched all three capsules get shot up into space. "Man... I hope everything goes well."

Selphie giggled. "Well, if even the LITTEST thing goes wrong, we'll be sure to hear Sharon yelling at them even from way up there."

"I'm sure they'll be just fine. The most we can do is pray for their safe return." Quistis walked over to the rental car they drove over and opened the driver's side. Zell and Selphie piled in the backseat, but Irvine was still standing outside, gazing off into the distance with a perturbed look on his face.

Zell poked his head out of the window. "Yo! Sharon'll be back to kick your ass, don't worry about it!"

Irvine just blinked and looked at him. "I don't doubt that. What I AM worried about is that big black box floating towards Esthar."

Everyone did a double take and leaned to get a good look at the enormous floating black skyscraper inching its way to the city. Its large frame cast an ominous shadow over the land and made the entire situation seem more surreal than it already was.

"WHAT THE HELL IS THAT?" Zell spazzed.

Quistis pursed her lips. "I don't know... but the important thing is to figure out what to do about it, if anything at all."

"If you want to know what it is, go ask Dr. Odine about it. Don't panic; there'll be time for that later. Stopping it is futile for now." Selphie said, causing everyone to crane their necks around and give her a really strange look. She caught everyone's expressions and grinned sheepishly. "I read it off of this note that was stuffed in the backseat. It's in Sharon's handwriting so..." her eyes got wide. "Do you think she's inheriting some of Gina's psychic powers?"

Quistis shook her head and clamped her hand over her mouth to keep in any kind of laughter she thought she was going to let out. _This psychic thing is certainly getting out of hand._ "In any case, let's get back to Esthar. If we really can't do anything about that thing, then we can at least help keep the people calm as much as possible."

"I wonder what she meant by having time to panic later..." Irvine mused, slipping into the passenger seat.

"Who cares? I wanna know what that thing is! Cause whatever it is, it can't be good." Zell punched his fist into his open palm. "Alright! On to Odine's!"

* * *

Sharon slowly peeled open her eyes, feeling like she slept too long because her whole body felt extremely groggy. _Shit... what time is it?_ She tried to pull herself up like she usually did, only to bump her head on the closed capsule door. "OOWWWW, SHIT!" She yelled loudly, already aggravated. As if responding to her profanity, the capsule door opened with a hiss, and Sharon squinted in the lights of the docking bay.

"About time you guys opened this sh- what the hell..." Sharon started feeling her body get gently pulled upward by an invisible source. She grabbed onto one side of the capsule, not really wanting to be too far from the ground. "Umm... sir..."

"Sorry about that. Lock onto rotation ring unit. Lock engaged. Generating artificial gravity." One of the technicians announced over the PA system, and Sharon slowly found herself floating to the ground. However, when her feet made contact, her legs automatically buckled as her body felt as if it were waking up after being numb for too long.

"... you know, I didn't think space travel would be so freaking painful. Now I know not to try out for NASA..." Sharon mumbled. A couple of staff members chuckled gently at her situation. "Well, I don't know if you heard, but quick-thaw makes you feel a bit itchy for the first few minutes until your body gets used to running like it usually does."

"Yeah, tell me about it." She pulled herself up slowly, testing out her limbs before slowly moving over to where she saw Gina laid out on a stretcher. Smiling gently at the feeling of being with her best friend again, she turned to look at the medical staff standing on the other side. "Why is she still asleep? Did something happen?"

"They drugged her to keep her asleep for a little while longer. Since she's a sorceress, they don't want to take any chances." Squall spoke up from behind her. Sharon frowned and folded her arms. "I don't appreciate how you guys are treating my best friend. She's not some kind of monster, she's a human being just like everybody else."

"We understand how you feel, but you've also got to recognize our situation. She's not the only sorceress we've got up here, now." One of the staff said, and took hold of one end of the stretcher to wheel it towards the door. "Let's wheel her to the med lab. Come with me."

The group walked down a glossy hallway after exiting the dock until they came to a sliding door. Sharon watched with careful eyes as the staff members slowly lifted Gina off of the stretcher and into a lone bed that rested in the center of a completely transparent room. She would have been mesmerized with the emptiness of space and the glowing dots of stars surrounding her, but she couldn't help but feel as void as space itself at the sight of Gina laying there motionless. Kneeling down, Sharon took one of Gina's hands in hers.

"Hey, G-fuu... just letting you know I'm right here, just like I promised. Be glad you didn't have to go through that thawing process shit... that was messed up. In other news, everyone else is doing just fine... but you'll never guess what that cowboy did. I'll tell you all about it when you're actually conscious and I'm not talking to a wall, okay?" She stood up, telling herself over and over that Gina was going to fine and that there was nothing to worry about.

Squall walked to the control room, his mind now off Gina as it was on what to say to Ellone when he finally got to see her. Gazing absently at the planet below, he wondered what the rest of the group was doing to occupy their time while he was up here floating in space. He couldn't deny that the sight was beautiful and held a strange, calming effect to his being that he hadn't felt in Hyne knew how long; it was almost as if being away from everything for just that one moment brought him tranquility.

"Whewee! This shit's tight!" Sharon whistled, looking around at the view. "I'd work here just for the view alone... but then again, I think it would bug me that I couldn't really GO anywhere else but this station because outside is just... well... zero gravity and no oxygen."

One of the men working at one of the complex looking control panels gave a slight smile, then turned his attention back to the small screen in front of him, his expression quickly becoming serious. "This is no time to be impressed. Look at this."

Squall and Sharon peered around to see a close up of the moon's surface. What originally looked like normal spots and shadows from farther away was confirmed to be blotches of teeming organisms gathering at a rapid pace in concentrated areas, making it look like globs of red jello were converging on their own accord.

"... you know... that's some messed up crap right there." Sharon wrinkled her nose. "Makes me think of Parasite Eve or something... that was not a fun game to be thinking about in the final minutes before you go to sleep, by the way." She added, her voice trailing off.

"It's the lunar world of monsters. Didn't you learn that in school?" The control room personnel gave Sharon a quizzical look.

"Of COURSE I did! I even read a book about the Lunar Cry while I was in Esthar, thank you very much." Sharon snapped back. "What I want to know is how the hell can a city that claims to be so technologically advanced to the point where they can make a utopian paradise come true, but can't do anything about the huge hell of monsters that makes its way down to civilization every handful of years?"

_Good point. I had almost forgotten about the Lunar Cry until it was mentioned, but... _"You can't expect them to know how to fix everything." Squall interjected.

"Well I can tell em how. Blow up the fucking moon. Simple as that."

Squall blinked. "... I think you've been hanging around Selphie too much."

Sharon grinned. "Damn straight. At any rate, weren't you here to see Ellone? Maybe you should go see her now. I'll hang around down here and play "what does this button do?" with this fancy control board." She gave a sheepish grin to the incredulous looks the personnel were giving her. "Just kidding. I'll be good."

Squall shot her a brief warning look before leaving the control room and making his way up the narrow steel steps situated almost directly outside the doorway. The space station was rather small and only presented a couple of doors left to his choosing, so he went directly in front of him to the lone door at the end of the hallway and hesitantly pressed the button to allow him to enter the room.

The electronic sliding door gave way to a medium-sized cylindrical room with a transparent ceiling that gave a spectacular view of the stars that twinkled in the endless black sky. To the right was a small metal table pulled up to a booth-like purple couch against one wall, followed up by another small desk that housed a few drawers. Squall then slowly turned his head to catch sight of a bed that was shaped like a small capsule, framed slightly by green translucent curtains. A lone person sat there, seemingly unaware of another person's presence in her room. Her legs were crossed loosely at her ankles, and her white knee-length skirt contrasted with her sky blue top. Her fingers slowly played ever so slightly with the green shawl that was draped casually around her elbows.

At first, Squall just stood there awkwardly near the doorway, still close enough to activate the sensor so that the sliding door didn't have a chance to close behind him. He just kept his steady gaze on a very important person from his past, not exactly knowing what to say. _I came this far to see her... and now I freeze up? What's wrong with me? How do I talk to someone I'd all but forgotten about, yet haunted my dreams for as long as I can remember? _He could always blame the GF's for messing with his memories. _But wouldn't that only be a half-truth? Maybe part of me wanted to forget... so I wouldn't have to deal with the pain of my childhood anymore. _Finally taking a couple of steps forward, the door behind him hissed closed, disrupting him from his thoughts so abruptly that he almost jumped.

Ellone looked up and over at him then, her warm brown eyes crinkling softly with her smile. "Squall, I'm so happy to see you again."

Squall nodded lightly, still unsure of himself. "Me too... Sis."

At the mention of the childhood nickname, Ellone looked down sheepishly, her eyes misting a bit. "It's sweet, hearing that name being spoken after so many years... especially from you Squall, knowing how much you've changed since then. You were always so carefree and happy... adventurous too, but never afraid to smile."

Squall walked further into the room then and took a seat across from her. _Hard to believe I was ever like that... has it really been that long?_

"I know you might be thinking that it's impossible for you to return to being that little boy you once knew," Ellone spoke again, looking up. "But he's still a part of you that will emerge again, whenever you feel comfortable enough with the past to wish it so." Looking fondly for a moment's silence at the figure in front of her, she continued. "We'll have time to catch up later. For now, let me apologize for my actions as of late. I got you involved in so many things... so much hardship."

"It's alright." Squall quickly reassured. "I understand what you were trying to do. Were we of any help?"

"Of course! You were my eyes. Thanks to you guys, I was able to see how much I was loved." She tucked a loose strand of brown hair behind her ear. "I couldn't change the past, but just seeing it was more than enough. Thank you so much." Ellone smiled at him again. "Don't tell me you came all the way to Esthar to be shipped to space just to see little old me?"

Squall blinked. "Don't be silly! I don't care where you are, I'd come and find you. Because I didn't have a chance to do it back then..." Trailing his voice off, he cleared his throat and assumed a more professional demeanor that a commander of Balamb should have. "I'm here to inform you that Ede.. Matron is no longer a sorceress. Her powers have been somehow transferred to one of our newest SeeDs, Regina Stewart. Right now, she's in the med lab probably undergoing examination to figure out how to rid her of that power... but until then it's possible that Ultimecia might try to use her as a pawn to get to you."

Ellone nodded slowly. "I see... if that were to happen... would you be forced to defeat your comrade in order to protect me?"

Squall opened his mouth to respond, then paused. _As a SeeD, I'm required to do it. But as Squall... _he was once again jolted rather forcefully out of his thoughts by an obnoxiously loud alarm, accompanied by the entire room being washed in a harsh red light. Ellone stood up and looked around the room in confusion. "What's going on?"

A static voice materialized over the intercom system. "Red Alert! Red Alert! All units, report to the Med Lab, STAT!"

_Med Lab... _Squall's stomach dropped. "I'll check it out. Ellone, I'll lead you down to the control room; you should be safe in there. C'mon." Taking her hand, he led her out of the room and around all of the rushing personnel until he got to the bottom of the stairs to the control room. As soon as her figure disappeared into the room, he turned and bolted to the hallway that led to the Med Lab. Unfortunately when he got there, he was met by a disturbing sight that had him stop in his tracks.

All of the medical personnel were scattered like rag dolls all along the length of the hallway. None of them were moving, but fortunately they were still breathing, their eyes fluttered closed. Squall trained his gaze to the only other standing figure beside himself. _Gina... _Her eyes held the same detached stare as they did that day on the float in Deling City, her feet shuffling her body sluggishly forward.

"Gina!" Squall continued forward, stepping around the fallen people. "Gina! It's me, Squall! Can you hear-" Just as his hand was about to touch her right shoulder, it felt as if every cell in his body was shoved forcefully in the opposite direction. He flew, carried by the unknown force until his back made rough contact with the wall across from her. Letting out a low hiss at the pain that started tingling through his frame, he managed to pick himself up, his eyes focused on Gina's slow figure steadily making her way down the hall, unfazed by anything around her.

_Shit! I've got to do something... if I don't, Sharon will bite my head off... wait... _Squall didn't remember seeing Sharon in the control room when he dropped Ellone off. Casting one last glance at Gina's retreating figure, he scanned the bodies littering the floor as he stepped over them well into the entrance to the Med Lab. There, half propped against the open doorway to the small room where Gina was originally kept was Sharon, her head drooped down to the point where her chin was touching her chest.

"Sharon! Are you okay? Are you awake?" Squall knelt down and shook her shoulders. "What happened?"

"G-fuu... it'll be okay..." Sharon mumbled half-incoherently before slipping back into unconsciousness.

Squall caught her before her head hit the floor and straightened her up. He tried shaking her lightly again to see if she would come to, but he ended up having to carry her comatose form back to the control room, where many people were gathered.

A computerized voice buzzed from a speaker on the control board. "Adel's Tomb Level 1 Seal has been deactivated."

One of the personnel turned to Squall grimly. "The sorceress is currently trying to free Adel. This is not good. Nobody can get within a couple of feet of her without being thrown backwards. The last switch is located on the actual tomb of Adel, so unless she plans on going out there to do it herself, then..."

"The moon! Look!" A random aide pointed at the window. The red mass that had been slowly formulating erupted like an intergalactic volcano and streamlined towards the planet at alarming speeds.

"... the Lunar Cry has begun." Ellone absently stated, a concerned look marring her delicate features.

Squall turned his head slightly as a panicked researcher rushed by. "Then that means Lunatic Pandora is at Tear's Point. When did this happen!" Adjusting Sharon's weight, he also overheard a personnel stating that Gina had somehow donned a space suit and was making her way out of one of the main airlocks. Squall closed his eyes. _Too much is happening at once! I can't concentrate long enough to make sense of anything or what I'm even supposed to be doing... Sharon's unconscious, Gina's obviously under control of Ultimecia, and hundreds of thousands of monsters are making their way towards the rest of the group in Esthar because of that thing I slightly remember from being in Laguna's body..._

The control room's personnel removed his headset and stood up. "We have to evacuate. The flood of monsters will soon present a danger to this base. The escape pods should already be prepared for our departure."

Squall gave an incredulous gape to the man in front of him. "What about Regina?"

"Oh, the sorceress? If she's at Adel's Tomb, she'll more than likely be swallowed by the wave of monsters projecting from the moon. If we don't hurry, we'll also suffer the same fate." He continued moving towards the exit.

The commander still didn't make a move to leave. "So you're just giving up on her like that!" He felt his voice rising. "You're not going to do something?"

"Look, the only thing we CAN do is evacuate. It's all beyond our control right now." He nodded towards the unconscious figure in his arms. "You need to be doing something about the people you CAN help. C'mon, let's get to the escape pods, pronto." Ellone let herself be dragged out of the room, casting Squall concerned glances all the while. He stood for a moment longer in the empty control room before making up his mind and following them out to the emergency escape pods. He was ushered into the remaining escape pod with the others, helping Sharon stay upright as the safety restraints locked in place.

Ellone kept up her concerned, but silent gaze as Squall made sure that Sharon was properly situated. He then stood without blinking, not making a move to get into his own seat, despite verbal prodding from the personnel that was already securely buckled in. Swallowing slowly, she spoke. "Squall..."

Everyone that was conscious at the time jumped when Squall punched the side of the metal pod without warning. His eyes didn't waver, but Ellone was close enough to notice that the arm that was used to hit the pod was shaking slightly. Before she could say anything comforting, he turned his crystal blue gaze at her, a flurry of emotions crashing in them.

"What am I supposed to do? I can't remember a time when I was so confused... I don't know what to do with myself, but I don't want to stand here and do nothing! Nobody else seems to care about what happens to Gina because of the power she has, but if I go back and Sharon wakes up and finds out her best friend isn't with us, she'll..."

"Squall, stop it." Ellone firmly cut him off. As he looked at her blankly, she continued after a deep breath. "There are some things I had to delve into the past to confirm... things that I should've seen for myself, but I just didn't. But I don't need my powers or any past connection with you to know that you are just using Sharon as a shield to mask your own feelings that you don't want to admit to yourself."

Squall was faintly aware that he'd drawn a small audience to this whole unfolding drama, but everything except himself and Ellone could've been millions of miles away for all he could care.

"Because of things neither of us could control back then, you solve all of your problems by hiding from them. I don't want to see you like this anymore. When you looked at me just that minute ago, I saw those eyes I remembered from that little boy I knew at the orphanage. They were troubled, but they were still those curious, innocent, puppy-dog eyes. I loved those eyes..." Ellone's voice began to slightly waver. "I want them back. I had a feeling that it would take something out of the ordinary to make you stop running from yourself, and I think this is it."

* * *

**SLy:** Advent Children is the bizzomb. And not only because I am obsessed with Sephiroth, but because it just IS. I got the soundtrack two days ago and I have been listening to that nonstop ever since. Nobou makes so much good shit it's insane. Especially with the all-out latin orchestra tracks. Yes. Oh, and if you need help with subtitles still, then I can try and help you. It took me 4+ hours to figure it out. Just E-mail me or something and we'll try to work stuff out. :D

**GurassuShinzo:** Don't worry about not reviewing; as long as you read and enjoy yourself it's all good with me. lol! I have extra work to do for teachers that I didn't even piss off! I just suck like that! Or maybe just because I procrastinate too much... yeah...

**Rae Anderson:** I won't stop writing. I may have a PAUSE in writing because of that evil thing called writers block or a life might get in the way, but I don't like to ever leave my works unfinished. So no worries on that. And good luck getting your computer up and working soon!

**Mudora:** Hell, I was laughing through the whole thing while WRITING it. Not an unusual thing for me while writing certain parts of this story, but I just hope the same feeling gets across when I post it for you all to read. And I see that it did. Yay! I did something right!

**PsychDragoonX:** I'm glad the style of writing is good. I try to keep it in the middle as much as possible. Cause I've read one too many stories where it could have been good, but it wasn't because the writer focused too much on using flowery words and dragging it out in detail too much, or the stories that don't have enough development at all. And your Mom is playing the game? That's freaking awesome; my Mom tries to MAKE me stop playing because she's afraid I'll get tendinitis because I play with the vibration function on and it shakes too much during Eden's summon sequence. Yeah. To make her happy, I just put the controller down after boosting and go do something else for the alloted minute and a half it takes for Eden to actually finish the attack and then I pick it back up again. Still pisses her off, though. XD But I guess I can't win, there.

**UltraBeing:** Oooh, another person able to get Squall's head out of his own ass! Great! The more the merrier; lord knows commander needs it, right? LOL Anyway, hope you continue reading soon!


	48. Chapter 48

Zell wiped his brow after landing a final fierce roundhouse kick to an Imp that had decided to join the random horde of monsters that had invaded the city not too long ago. After quickly returning to the city, the group headed to Dr. Odine's lab to ask him about the mysterious black vessel that was drawing a lot of attention from the populace of Esthar. Even though the eccentric doctor tried to ramble aimlessly about the Lunatic Pandora and his many hypotheses regarding it, Zell utilized his power as the leader and impatiently ordered Odine to get to the main facts by hoisting him above the ground by his flamboyant circus-like collar.

The useful information received was that the Lunatic Pandora's target was not the people of Esthar. It only went to one place, and that was Tear's Point, located about 30 miles outside of the city limits. From there, it would initiate the Lunar Cry, a historical event that happened back when Sorceress Adel was still in power. No one had any idea as to how Lunatic Pandora was unearthed from its place far under the sea, but in consideration of the situation it really wasn't pertinent that they know about that yet. After the very large vessel finally left the city lines, the group of SeeDs busied themselves by helping to reorganize the people and lead them safely back to their homes. Unfortunately for them, the clean up didn't last long because everyone's gaze had fixated on the sky as the clouds rumbled and parted. The beautiful blue of the heavens turned a menacing crimson red, and without further warning, thousands of monsters literally poured from above.

"Geez, do they ever stop coming? It was pretty wicked at first, but now I'm just getting tired of this." Zell griped, keeping his eyes open for more enemies that were surely still roaming around the humongous metropolis.

"I don't think so." Irvine answered while reloading his rifle. "If the Lunar Cry really did just happen, then I don't think any amount of effort we put into getting this city "fiend-free" is going to help much. The most we can do is just get rid of those that we encounter head on and wait the whole situation out."

The two men looked up and over at the sight of a bouncy girl in a yellow jumper running their way. "YOU GUYS!" Selphie paused a couple of feet away from them to rest her hands on her knees and catch her breath. "Come to the Airstation! Something happened at the Lunar Base and everyone had to evacuate, and they're recovering the emergency escape pods there. Squall and the others should be there, too. Quistis is on her way already. Let's hurry!"

The three of them hightailed it back to the airstation without much trouble and clambered through the sliding doors. Many personnel were milling about, working to open the capsules that were dispatched from the Lunar Base and helping those inside. Their eyes scanned the area briefly before finally finding Quistis chatting with a familiar girl in a white skirt.

"Sis!" Zell exclaimed, grinning widely.

Ellone smiled gently. "Zell, Sefie, Irvy, and of course, Quisty. I've been able to see most of you while I was temporarily in the care of Cid at Balamb Garden, but it's very different when I know all of you have regained your memories and we're meeting face to face like this. I'm so glad to be acquainted with you all again."

Everyone nodded and smiled back, sharing a heartfelt reunion that seemed to be long overdue. At that moment, the mood was shattered by a large clambering sound and a familiar voice rise above the surrounding commotion.

"... I guess that means she's back safely, huh?" Irvine smirked.

"Ma'am... it would be best if you would just stay calm and..."

"THE HELL? No, I will NOT stay calm! I know how to get out of this damn thing just fucking LET ME DO IT FOR HYNE'S SAKE!" Sharon pushed herself away from the small crowd of personnel that was sent to assist her out of the capsule. "I don't like being treated like an invalid, so if I didn't ask for your help don't do me any favors!" She began walking over to the familiar group of people before stopping abruptly. Her memories of what happened on the Lunar Base before she lost consciousness was slowly shimmering back into her mind, and her eyes widened as she looked around.

Ellone's expression grew troubled. "Oh no..."

Quistis frowned. " 'Oh no', what? What exactly happened up there?"

"Where's Gina?" Sharon asked, her voice back at a regular timbre and strangely steady. Her brown eyes scanned the group until she reached Ellone. She never got the chance to meet her formally with Squall at the base, but the look that she held in her eyes spoke volumes about what happened while she was unconscious. "... she's... she's not with us?" Sharon continued, still meeting Ellone's gaze.

Ellone shook her head slowly. "I'm... I'm sorry. Everything was very chaotic up in space, and something happened to your friend while we were there. They forced us all to evacuate because of all that was going on..."

Sharon caught her breath. She didn't like where the conversation was going, but she still had to know. "So... Gina is still..."

"The last thing I remember them reporting is that she was wearing a suit and preparing to float out into space. She's... she's not expected to survive."

Everyone sucked in a sharp breath at the news.

* * *

Gina slowly opened her eyes after what seemed like a very long sleep, but for some reason it already felt like her eyes had been open forever, stinging as if a hair was brushing her pupils. Blinking profusely, she waited for the soothing tears that usually come to rinse her eyes out, and after too much time had passed she was very confused as to why they weren't coming. That is, until she actually looked in front of her.

Never-ending darkness, save for a few glittering dots that occasionally pierced the blanket of black.

_Oh my god... oh my... god... I'm in... how did I... oh my lord... _After awhile, even Gina's brain grinded to a halt in the middle of her usual mental sputtering as she fought to comprehend what could have happened and maybe even the very small possibility that she could be dreaming all of this up.

When she was little, Gina had every other little child's dream of becoming an astronaut when she grew up, but of course over time that changed when she became more mature and realized how virtually unrealistic that job plan would be, not to mention the amount of training she would have to endure in order to even get a chance to work with NASA. Well, that and the fact that she would have to take a lot of math classes and numbers didn't work well with her brain at all. But dreaming about someday being in a spaceship is one thing. To wake up somehow floating by yourself in a bulky spacesuit with limited air supply and no visible way to salvation from the void that is the universe is something totally different. It was calming but extremely frightening to hear absolutely nothing but the quickening of her own frantic breathing, seeing nothing but stars in the far distance, and wondering how in the hell she was going to get out of this one alive.

It wasn't until she was in that space suit wandering aimlessly that she realized how indescribably small and inferior she was.

Gina really wished she could cry right then, because the comfort of tears streaming down her cheeks would be a desperate signal to her that she was still alive. Because at that point, she didn't quite feel all there. Maybe it was the zero gravity. Maybe it was the fact that her brain felt funny and she couldn't remember what happened between the time the Lunar Gate's staff put her in the deep sleep for transport and what was going on currently. Or maybe it was the fact that she had to deal with the truth that for once, her worst case scenario finale finally became a reality: She was going to die.

She was sure that if the bulky space suit allowed her any sort of room, she would have begun to tremor uncontrollably. _I can't believe this. After all of this, I'm going to die out here with no air, and nobody's going to find me. I'll be leaving everyone... including Sharii-chan... _Gina wanted to beat herself in the head until she fell unconscious, but she could barely move her own fingers. She didn't really have the will to do anything but just relax and accept her fate, but because her brain, even in its final moments, wanted to work in overdrive, she was going to drive herself mentally insane thinking about too many things that would overload even the toughest Marine's mind. Knocking herself back out would at least be peaceful, unless her dreams haunted her ass-kicking final moments.

_Okay. SHUT UP, REGINA STEWART. You are not going to die. THINK; and not about bad things. Think about what you could do to get out of here before giving up. This is still FFVIII. This is your realm. If anybody could get out of a pinch, you'd be the best one to know how. _Trying to control the tremor in her bottom lip, she tried to focus. _At this point in the game... what happened? _Gina's eyes widened. _Oh SNAP! Ultimecia... _That explained why she was floating in space. Next, she remembered the emergency air button that should be located somewhere on the front of her space suit. Moving as if she was in water because of the gravity restrictions, she fumbled around for the button. When her finger found a small indentation, she hoped that it wasn't the button to release her space suit otherwise she would be utterly screwed. When a whoosh of fresh air filled her helmet, Gina let out a sigh of relief. She didn't know if her air supply was running out or not, but it was better to be safe than sorry. _Now I have to start looking for a way to save my ass before THAT air supply runs out. _Stopping for a moment and then awkwardly attempting to swim around in a circle to get a better view of her surroundings, she found herself looking upside down (or at least she thought was upside down, she didn't really know in space) at the moon. She paused to marvel at how big it was, and how happy she was to see something else but darkness and spots of light. _Okay so... the moon is nice. But there's monsters there, and no air. _Fighting the sinking feeling in her heart, her eyes frantically searched the area until she lighted on something very large and very red floating adjacent to the moon's brilliant surface.

The Ragnarok.

Squealing in delight, Gina steeled herself for one purpose and one purpose only: to get to the ship and get air. Doing a very weird combination of a doggie paddle and a freestyle, Gina worked her way towards her goal. After awhile, she realized that the work she was putting out was taking up more air than needed, but she couldn't do anything about that. As hard as she was working, her destination seemed impossibly far. To keep herself from getting more discouraged, she closed her eyes and attempted to work harder, hoping she was going the right way. It seemed like a millennium, but when her hand brushed against the metallic of the aircraft's surface, she once again wanted to weep, but this time in relief. Patting her way around the hull and up towards the top of the ship, she searched frantically for some kind of hatch to let her inside. A faint beep indicated that her air was dangerously low. _Oh shit..._

Gina's eyes found a black handle and the faint outline of a door. Grabbing it with both hands, she twisted and pulled until it opened and she floated inside, remembering to hit the button on the far wall to close the hatch. _Shit... still no air. How... the next room! _Seeing her vision blur dangerously, she scrambled to the door and literally crashed into it trying to open it. Her collision hit the correct button and the door whizzed open, where Gina happily floated in. The door closed tightly behind her, and she felt herself returning to her normal earth weight. _That means... AIR! AIR! _Gina pushed any and all remaining latches or buttons on her bulky space suit as she stumbled aimlessly deeper into the ship. As the second door to the hallway slid shut, Gina threw off her helmet and breathed deeply, slumping against the wall and to the floor in exhaustion.

After a few deep breaths and dazed watching of the helmet she threw off just minutes ago roll around on the floor across the hall, Gina's voice caught and she started sobbing uncontrollably. It was a mixture of emotions going through her at that moment, a primary one being disbelief that she survived by herself and her stupid plan she thought up impromptu while floating in space actually pulled through. Now I have to figure out how to work this thing to get back home. _After all that I went through just to get here, that would be the easy part, right? _In the middle of contemplating whether or not she was finished crying so she could get to the next part of what she had to do, she heard a noise from the hallway she just entered from.

_... what the hell was that! Crap, I almost forgot, it could be the Propagators! SHIITTT I have no weapon! What am I going to do?_ Gina just looked expectantly at the door she was sitting not a couple of feet away from and prayed that the monsters couldn't open doors.

After a moments silence, the door hissed open and Gina used what was left of her self-control to refrain from screaming bloody murder. But as it turned out, she lost her voice as soon as she decided she wanted to scream.

Squall Leonheart looked at his cadet's tear-streaked face as he stood awkwardly in the doorway, his space helmet tucked underneath one arm. He didn't really know what to do or say; this was the first time he had ever been in this kind of predicament. Usually it was Sharon who saw Gina through her most emotional times, and like hell he knew what to do anyway. He wasn't even sure what he was doing here. He had an idea when he left the escape pod, but on the way the idea must have evaporated into space or something. Maybe because it was all Ellone's idea and he just went along with it because he was told to. _That's not true. She didn't tell you anything. You did all of this yourself._ "... You know, you got pretty far for someone who didn't use the emergency jet pack." He stated.

Gina just sat there with her mouth still open, and blinked. She had forgotten all about that. _Oops. _That would have helped her journey go a helluva lot smoother. Still staring at Squall, she finally found her voice. "You... came all the way out here... to save me?" She squeaked on the last word.

He wanted to give a protocol-safe response to her question, one that he would have given to Headmaster Cid or anyone else in the SeeD program, since he couldn't say "no" or "whatever" like he most usually would. But nothing like that even came to mind, either.

"Yes. Yes, I did." He said bluntly, clearly uncomfortable for having said what was on his mind for once. Shifting from one foot to the other, he added, "Not like you needed any help after all, though."

Gina really tried to stop staring, she really did. But the combination of recent events including the shock that her commander was standing right in front of her and admitting straight out that he had come out in the dead of space as vulnerable as she had been just moments before to save her was too much. She felt like fainting, but she'd be damned if she'd show any more weakness in front of Mr. Silent-Angst. _Hell, he probably doesn't know what to do with himself now as it is. _"Oh... guess not, huh?" Gina attempted a chuckle and tried to nonchalantly wipe what was left of her tears away from her face. "Umm... thank you, though. I really wasn't sure what was going to happen out there anyway... so... uh... yeah..." She trailed off as the intelligence level in the already failed conversation severely dropped. "Uh... I guess we'd better get out of these suits since we're not going to be floating along in space anytime soon."

Squall blinked to attention, grateful for a tiny distraction of some sorts. "Yeah."

However, a few minutes later, they were back where they started, looking at each other stupidly without the right words to say.

_This is REALLY getting ridiculous. Two people with emotional barriers struggling to remain intact under all of this stress. So, he came out to save my sorry sorceress ass. I guess I could have remembered that from the game when he came out to save Rinoa when she... _Gina stopped thinking and frowned. Once again, she couldn't really help having to be saved and pampered like the first-class Mary Sue of FFVIII. She thought she had escaped it or at least forgotten a little bit about it for a while, and she would have had a lot under her belt if she had managed to make it back in the Ragnarok by herself. But Squall just had to come and save her anyway. _Why do things always have to turn out like this! I'm so tired of being a replacement Rinoa! _Angry at the whole damn situation, she straightened up. "Well, I guess we'd better get the ship back to the Airstation or something so we can really be in the clear."

The two of them walked around the length of the ship just to make sure that there were indeed no threats to their safety, and their search turned up clean. Upon reaching the control room at the very front of the ship, Gina studied the plethora of knobs, switches, and levers on the "dashboard". Her eyes started crossing. "Umm..."

Squall stepped ahead of her and took a look at everything himself. _Great... don't tell me we have to fly this thing. _Pausing when he heard a faint murmur from the small speaker set in the control panel, he fumbled around for something that resembled the volume.

"This is Esthar Airstation. Ragnarok, do you copy?"

Gina plopped herself down in the chair and waited while Squall struggled to enter the commands that were given to him into the atmospheric reentry program. Her mind wandered to the thought of finally seeing Sharon again, and it brought a faint smile to her face.

"Okay, so the codes are entered. Next, to make sure that you have enough fuel to safely return to the surface, I'm going to ask you to turn off the gravity generator. It should be on the same panel you just used."

"Alright." A faint beep was heard. "Done."

"Congratulations. You're home free, Ragnarok. And... there's one more thing we need to tell you. From all of us at Ground Control, we wish you Godspeed."

"Thanks." Squall closed the reception, then raised an eyebrow over at Gina, who had begun chuckling bitterly.

She snorted to cut off her laughter. "Sorry. It's just that at one point in my life, I had dreamed of hearing those closing words said to me whenever I became an astronaut. Now, I hope I NEVER see space this up close and personal ever again."

"I would imagine. But careful of zero gravity one more time." Squall noted as they began floating above their seats. Gina grumbled and grabbed for the seatbelts and locked it tightly around her waist. Squall did the same before continuing. "By the way, I did figure that you were possessed by Ultimecia when you wrecked the Lunar Base just to get out to Adel's Tomb."

Her eyes widened. "I did WHAT! I wrecked the base. I wrecked the base... oh my god..." Gina started to put her head in her hands. "Every single time this damn power comes out, somebody gets hurt."

"Remember though, it's not really you. It's Ultimecia using you to her advantage. There's nothing you can really do about that but wait it out."

"Yeah well, tell everyone who DOESN'T know that to not be afraid of me. When they look at me, when they look at any sorceress, they think of her as a monster BECAUSE shit like this happens." Gina snapped. "I'm not helping anything right now. God, if I had just..." She continued muttering with her head in her hands.

Squall tried again. "Try not to beat yourself up over it. The people that matter most, the whole group, will protect you. And if not us, then I'm sure Sharon will run herself ragged trying."

That statement just sent another bitter peal of laughter rushing through Gina. Squall began to think that it really wasn't a good idea to open his mouth if all it did was make people weirded out or overly bitter. _I try to do something for once and this is how it turns out._

Gina took a deep breath and looked at him apologetically. "I'm sorry."

Squall shrugged. "Whatever." He tried to not let his usual response come off as short as it usually sounds.

She shrugged herself, turning her gaze towards the window where the planet was slowly coming closer. "I mean, I'm sorry for everything. Sorry for being bitter, sorry for being such a hassle, and sorry for me and Sharii-chan's attitudes towards the group as of late." Gina shot him a glance. "I'm sure you've picked up on it by now."

"... Yeah."

"It's just that... there's a lot of things going on between us right now, as well as what's going to go down in the near future. In terms of me, it's quite obvious that the whole world knows I'm a sorceress and that I almost blew up Esthar's Lunar Base single-handedly. When we land, they will detain me and do everything short of killing me to ensure that I do not cause the public any more harm."

Squall started to say something, but Gina continued before he got the chance. "I also want you to be prepared for the fact that I will do everything in my power to keep them from detaining me. Even if it includes me calling on other dangerous powers to get my point across. I won't like it, but I have to do it. So from this point on, don't trouble yourself with protecting me. There's nothing really anyone can do at this point. I... we have a mission to complete. Finding a way to deal with Ultimecia is our main goal, and Sharii and I will help you all see it through to the end." She hesitated.

He knew there was something more to it. "... and?"

Gina couldn't look at him as she took another deep breath. "And... after that, I will use these powers to open up a portal to go back to our original time. Both of us have been planning this for a while. We can't stay here, we know this now."

A long pause ensued, the only sound the low humming of the Ragnarok cruising along through space as the blunt of what she said sank in. It would be a lie to say that Squall didn't see this coming, but to have it finally said and out in the open meant that he had to deal with it. That's why he always tried to shy from verbal communication - if it wasn't said, then that meant that it wasn't truly real, and it was easy to ignore or forget. It was one of the reasons why he never talked about himself. If he did, then he would have to remember. And that meant that he would have to deal with the pain all over again.

"Why can't you stay here?" He said after a moment's peace. "What if you have to stay here? What if your plan to get back to your world doesn't work? Then what?"

"I don't know. I'm trying not to think of failure, because the only thing that I CAN think about is how this wasn't even meant to be." Gina tried to keep the faint quiver out of her voice. "Sharii-chan and I have agreed that us being in your world any longer would continue to disrupt everything for you guys. We don't belong, and no amount of us wishing we could is going to help us deal when the time comes for us to say goodbye. We were never supposed to meet, we were never supposed to be friends, we were never meant to be SeeDs, and I was NEVER meant to be a sorceress. It's unfair to you as well as it is to us to keep playing this game, to tease the idea of comfort when all if it will be taken away."

Squall nodded slowly. "So... that's why you two tried to distance yourselves. To try to make the pain less."

Gina silently acknowledged that he was right and continued looking out of the window.

_If I were in her shoes, that's exactly what I would do, I guess. In a way, isn't that what I've been doing ever since Sis left? _The commander was jostled out of his thoughts by the noise of the radio submitting a transmission.

"This is Airstation. Ragnarok, please respond."

Squall reached over and pressed the receive button. "This is the Ragnarok."

"We have some questions for you. We have collected all of the escape pods from the Lunar Base and we have a good idea of what happened. How many of you are there?"

"... Just two."

"... Your names?"

"Squall Leonhart. A SeeD from Balamb Garden."

"And the other?"

"... Regina Stewart." Squall responded, keeping his gaze on Gina the entire time.

"Regina! The sorceress is there?"

Gina just looked sleepily at the intercom on the dashboard, the red light blinking frantically.

"Ragnarok, please respond!"

Squall said nothing, just keeping his eyes on the only other person in the room.

"The sorceress will be seized upon arrival. Be sure to follow the crew's instructions."

Gina rolled her eyes and moved just enough to give them the middle finger, a typical Sharon move. At that point in time, Squall turned off the receiver. She just smiled bitterly. "Whatever."

* * *

A blue rental car skid to a stop, and Sharon barely waited for it to stop moving before she jumped out of the driver's seat and ran full speed up to where the airship Ragnarok had made an emergency landing. Zell, Selphie, Quistis, and Irvine got out shortly afterwards and rushed to catch up.

_G-fuu... dammit, you had better be okay... _She pushed herself up to the front of the group of people already waiting for the bottom hatch to open. She bounced on her heels expectantly until the hatch finally hissed and opened with a cloud of steam, lowering the ramp to the ground.

"Look! There they are!" Selphie exclaimed, pointing as two figures walked down the walkway and stopped just a couple of feet away from the Ragnarok. She waved excitedly as if welcoming home a cruise ship.

Sharon noticed something was wrong just by sneaking a glance at Gina. For some reason, she was hoe glaring the entire lot of personnel waiting there to receive her, the kind of glare Sharon hadn't seen since high school. _Oh my god... what the hell's going on here? _"Let me guess... this isn't exactly the welcoming party you were hoping for, huh Gina?"

"Sorceress Regina. You must come with us. We must seal your power for the sake of the world." A white-clad staff member spoke up in a monotone voice.

Gina just pursed her lips together. "Fuck off."

Zell's mouth dropped open. "What did she just say? What the hell?"

"Uh... I think she's REALLY pissed off right now." Irvine pointed out, inwardly hoping that large blocks of ice wouldn't start formulating out of thin air like last time.

Another one spoke off. "But you know the consequences of your existence from this planet's past encounters with sorceresses of high power. If you do not comply, then we will have to implement extreme measures to apprehend you."

That was met by a raise of an eyebrow. "Oh really? Extreme measures? I don't think you have anything quite too extreme for me right now." Gina took a step forward. "I said, fuck off. I'm not going anywhere, and I don't have time for you. That's my final warning. Take it or leave it."

The many personnel surrounding her traded glances with one another, inwardly contemplating if she was bluffing or if she really was going to blow the entire chunk of earth they were standing on to bits if they tried anything. Seeing that they couldn't risk taking the sorceress by force, they settled for the next best thing; they turned and grabbed the other SeeDs standing right next to them.

"We're sorry to do this, but we did not limit our extreme countermeasures to just the sorceress." All of them produced tiny but deadly guns and held the hostages at gunpoint. "Either you come with us, or they suffer the consequences."

Gina's eyes widened incredulously at the sight of Sharon in danger. _Oh... hell... no... _"You will let... Sharii-chan... go." She felt herself losing control again, just like the time in Deling City. Half of her was afraid of what would happen because there is no way she could contain it, but the other half was just looking for blood now that they had done the ultimate thing to piss her off. Absently, she felt her right hand raising, and she barely noticed the beginnings of a very strong Flare spell formulating beneath all of the personnel's feet. _Crap... if I let this continue, then Sharii-chan and the others will be caught in the blast... oh CRAP..._

A quick movement in front of her snapped her out of her daze, and Gina found herself looking at the back of Squall's short leather jacket with the familiar fur lining. His gunblade was drawn, and was pointed at the white-clad staff members.

"You heard her. Let them go. I hope you know that even though I did save all of your lives, I will not hesitate to cut you down." Squall shifted the point of his blade to each of the individual personnel. "But which would you prefer: wide-spread destruction or point-blank precision?"

"This is LUDICROUS!" One of them sputtered. "A SeeD, one that is supposed to rid the world of sorceresses is actually turning on us to PROTECT one!"

"Damn shiggy, he is." Sharon wrestled her way out of their grip and walked over to Squall and Gina. "So, since I'm sure you all don't want the planet to blow up and/or get sliced into julienne pieces, you'll stand down and let us go. Kthxbi!" She stopped to give the confused and startled Gina a bear hug before jogging up the ramp into the Ragnarok.

Quistis stared at her commander. "... Squall?"

He glanced at her and nodded for them all to follow Sharon onto the Ragnarok. One by one, they all timidly crept away from their captors and filed onto the ship. Squall and Gina were the last ones on, leaving the remaining people agape as the hatch closed firmly behind them.

On the way to the front of the ship, Gina stopped walking. "Squall... what... why..."

He paused and turned to look straight at her. "As your friend, I understand if you refuse our help from now on. As your commander, you WILL allow me to protect you when the times comes. That is an order, Stewart."

Gina tried to keep her mouth from scraping the floor as she mustered a half-assed salute. "Yes, sir."


	49. Chapter 49

**A/N:** Hi, guys. I am alive. This fiction is still alive. I would go into big detail about what I've been doing this past... year, but I won't because nobody cares that much; you just wanna know why the hell I dropped this story off the face of the earth for so long. Hell, I bet some of you that have this story on alert will not believe your E-mails when it says that I've updated. And I don't blame you.

I didn't want to be gone for so long, but life got really busy. I've gone and shipped myself to Taiwan for another study abroad thing, had many issues, my classes were kicking my ass, etc etc. But the biggest reason why I stopped updating is because I had the worst case of writer's block EVER. With life getting so busy, it was easy to forget about how much time had gone by before I continued writing. Well, it's nearing the final stretch, so I'm going to see if I can get this story done before I head back up to college at the end of August and get swept up into classes, again. It will be my final year in college, so I expect it to beat my ass very badly. For those of you still reading, I cannot thank you enough for your undying loyalty and support.

* * *

"So... I guess this means we're fugitives now, huh?"

"Yep."

"That means we're in REALLY big trouble, right?"

"Oh, hell yeah."

"What are we gonna do now, Sharii-chan?"

"I'm voting for putting our heads between our legs and kissing our sorry asses goodbye."

Gina and Sharon sat next to each other on the front steps of what was left of Edea's house, or the orphanage in which the rest of the group had their short but humble childhood. After the whole episode with the Estharian crew, they deported themselves from all sorts of civilization. On one hand, it was good to be at a place where nobody would think to look for them unless they really knew their stuff. On the other hand... they were sitting amidst the ruins of what was once the FFVIII crew's home. Everyone else had gone inside, but Gina and Sharon opted for being as unobtrusive as possible.

"They're probably going to come out here all worried if we don't go inside." Sharon pointed out after a moment of listening to the small waves crash against the nearby beach.

"Eh, I don't care. I'd rather wait until they came out and got us. Gives me time to think." Gina responded, putting her head in her hands.

Her best friend looked at her carefully. "Is this about what happened at the Lunar Base? Girl, don't fret about that. It's not like you could've controlled the outcome. In fact, it needed to happen in some strange way so the storyline would GET to this point. Isn't that what we're supposed to be doing to the best of our ability?"

Gina shook her head lightly. "No... I mean, yeah, I know. I'm pretty much over all that, except for the fact that I somehow hurt you in the process. But what I'm really antsy about is how our commander is going to take all this."

"Psht, like he takes anything else; angstily. If that is even a word."

Brushing her palms from her face to the sides of her hair to keep loose strands back, she let out another sigh. "Sharii-chan, I told him what we're planning on doing after the final battle."

Sharon froze. "... about us going home? Shit... what all happened after you told him? And do you think he's going to tell the others?"

"I'm not sure what he's going to do. I'm leaning more towards the possibility that he'll leave it up to us whether or not we tell everyone since it's not really his information to spread. He just... kinda shrugged and took it pretty well. I figured he probably saw that coming. But what I didn't think until just now was the fact that I'm doing exactly what happened to him back in this exact spot when Ellone left. The only difference is I let him know beforehand. God, this sucks because we weren't even planning to TELL them before abandoning them! I'm thinking that it's maybe not such a good idea..."

"What's not a good idea? Us going home? Gina, we HAVE to. We got ourselves into this mess and it's our job to get out of it." Sharon got to her feet and started pacing. "Could we really feel comfortable staying here, knowing that we ripped a big one in the main timeline? This is what I figure, from my own speculation combined with what little common sense and problem solving skills that I have... not to mention way too many hours wasted watching Back to the Future." She sighed, gathered her thoughts before she lost them, and continued. "When Squall and the others found the portal and stepped through to our world, they split their timeline. One timeline carries on from the point BEFORE entering the portal, which I believe carries on to what we know as FFVIII. The other timeline is the one that included all of the events that happened AFTER entering the portal, the one that we are in right now. Now, this might get confusing, but try to stay with me. For us, we did the same thing when we stepped through the portal. We split OUR main timeline. Since time must remain a constant no matter what, I believe that time split in OUR world to one that continues without us, and the one that we are following right now. We don't know how that went since we can't jump to the future or jump to the past."

Gina raised an eyebrow and tried to keep her eyes from crossing. "Hold on a second, this is a lot to absorb. So... they have their own timeline and we have our own?"  
Sharon nodded empathically. "Yup yup. We're taught to believe that there is only one timeline for simplicity's sake, but the hole in that theory comes in because we assume that we are the only world out there. We, whether we wanted to or not, found out that there are other worlds running parallel to ours. We were never meant to cross or meet up with each other. But, because of some fucked up glitch, we were able to. The only timeline that we split... or better yet, the only timeline that we have to worry about... is our world's present. Our present might intertwine with their present, but they aren't the same and won't meld together to be the same. All the pieces have to be back where they are supposed to be before time continues as normally as possible for some reason. Which turns out to be good for us when we go back to GVSU, because that saves us the whole "where were you the past year?" drama that would take a helluva lot of bullshitting to explain in a way that wouldn't get us both committed."

"Okay. Umm... when we go back... will we still have two different timelines or will they merge together to be back as one again?" Gina questioned, her brow still knitted in concentration.

"No. The damage we did is irreversible. The best we can do is to hop back over to the timeline that is STILL frozen, waiting for us to return."

"That sucks. But wait... why hasn't THIS world frozen? Or at least how come WE haven't frozen? We're not supposed to be here, right? So why can we function?"

Sharon thought for a moment. "Because we're a part of their timeline. Think of it as us crossing over into another lane of traffic on a freeway."

"When we go back, will this timeline freeze until we return, or will it just keep going? I don't want to inadvertently create a split of split of a main timeline that isn't even ours... oh my god, my head is starting to hurt.."

"See, that's where I'm HOPING that it won't. All of this is one bigass theory, and worse yet it's a theory created by me, so there's a huge chance that all of this is just technical bullshit that doesn't even exist." Sharon took off her glasses and started to clean the lenses absentmindedly. "But, by the theory I came up with, it didn't freeze since we weren't originally from this world anyway. It would only freeze here if they left to go to our world, for example. We just go back and time in OUR world, the world we're from, picks up like we never left. Their split timeline keeps running much like it is now, because they are all back in their right world. Does that make sense?"  
"It does if I don't have to think about it too much."

"Yeah. Thinking is inadvisable. If I do, then I start thinking about other possibilities and that's just too much shit to worry about. But the whole point of me bringing that mess up is to stress the fact that we HAVE to go back, if just to get time in our world moving again. I don't really want to think of the consequences of staying here indefinitely. We haven't figured out if we AGE while over here. It would be trippy if we didn't and we somehow discover immortality by jumping time and space to another world. But that would be fucked up in it's own because..."  
Gina clapped her hands over her ears. "OKAY, OKAY. That's enough conspiracy theories for now. But... one last question. If we can't fix their timeline, then why are we helping them?"

"Because we're not heartless bastards, for one. Two, this makes it easier if we know what's gonna come up next. Three, what else would we do if we weren't with them? Life is a little bit more eventful this way, to say the least."

"Tell me about it." Gina muttered. "Who would ever want to trade a life filled with supremely dangerous antics for one of normality? At this point, life can't get that much more interesting."

As if on cue, the front door to the orphanage opened, and Irvine stepped out, pausing to stretch for a minute. Both Gina and Sharon turned sharply around out of paranoia, wondering if he or anyone else inside had heard their long and convoluted conversation. Sharon decided to go for the normal approach.

"What the fuck do you want?"

The cowboy winked and turned on his trademark grin. "Do you really want to know the answer to that question?"

The tall, hotheaded girl opened her mouth to reply in a scathing and most likely unintelligible response, but was cut off by him bounding off the steps and catching her lips in an impromptu kiss. If Gina was shocked before, it was nothing compared to what she felt after she realized that Sharon wasn't going to kill him for it.

"... and I take what I just said back. Sharii-chan, did I miss something while I was unconscious in space?"

"Actually, it was before you were in space." Irvine offered.

Gina just blinked at him. "Sharii-chan..."

Sharon coughed and aimed her eyes slightly downward. "Well, you see what had happened was..."

"We're dating." Irvine chirped in again, grinning at Gina while pulling Sharon next to him.

Gina face faulted. "WHAT!"

"NO! Goddamnit, it was ONE DATE. And it wasn't even a date, you just confused the fuck out of me in that damn bookstore..." Sharon started off, tugging away from him.

"You confused yourself. That's what happens when you remain in denial."

"I am this close from kicking you in the head. And I'm not talking about the one inside of your skull, since it's obvious you haven't used THAT in god knows how long."

"Oooh, I love it when you talk dirty."

"Oh really? I love it when YOU don't talk at ALL."

"So you DO love something about me. I like this. Tell me more."

"SHUT. THE FUCK. UP!"

Gina rose from her place on the front steps, watching the familiar exchange between the two gunslingers in great amusement. At that point, she really didn't care to know the back-story of how or if they really did hook up while she was unconscious in Odine's lab. She'd find it all out eventually, or even in a couple of minutes if she could stand there listening to their voices rise indefinitely. Instead, she shook her head and let out a chuckle while excusing herself from the evident "lovers spat" in front of her, turning to finally enter what was left of the orphanage. She stepped around fallen bits of stone while stopping briefly to look over the things in a rickety cabinet, as worn out and sparse as they were. Continuing straight through the back wooden door, Gina paused at the sound of laughter. Looking out past a fallen stone pillar, she spotted Zell, Selphie, and Quistis tossing around a Frisbee by the ocean. She watched from a distance as the girl in the yellow jumper lunged to catch the flyaway toy, only to be thwarted by a splash of water from Zell as he snatched it from her grasp. Quistis couldn't help but laugh at that turn of events, sending the whole group into a fit of giggles.

_It's good that they haven't forgotten how to laugh, even in the worst of times. I hope I never see the day when they no longer have joy. _Gina was surprised when she no longer felt the familiar pang of wist she normally felt whenever she witnessed the group doing something she felt she never had the right to intrude upon. _I guess I'm coping._ Turning away with a faint smile on her face, she reentered the main area of the orphanage and stepped across to an opening in the wall made by Time and Mother Nature. It was there she found the only other missing member of the crew, staring out at the familiar never-ending meadow of yellow flowers, swaying slightly in the sea breeze.

Gina observed the tall figure clad in his usual black ensemble, his arms folded across his chest. His brown hair ruffled in time to the petals stirring in the field in front of him, but his eyes were staring off into the distance, that all too familiar detached stare he's managed to hold in more than one instance.

"So, what's up?" Gina finally spoke up, stepping up next to Squall while keeping a comfortable distance.

The commander shifted his gaze from the skyline to the person who just appeared beside him. "Just thinking."

"You know, you've gotta look in the mirror one day when you look at people out of the corner of your eye like that." She said, giving him a glance. "As if the stark contrast between your dark hair color and your light blue eyes wasn't shocking enough, you seem to give it an extra punch when you're all detached like that."

He quickly rerouted his eyes back where they previously were. "... Sorry."

Gina shrugged. "Whatever. Everyone's used to seeing it, I was just wondering if you ever knew what you looked like when you make half of the expressions that you most frequently do."

A lapse occurred after that, one that was neither comfortable nor uncomfortable.

"I won't tell them." Gina turned her head to look up at Squall with a question written all over her face, and he continued. "Unless you give me permission to do so otherwise. I figure... it's your call whether or not everyone knows what you two are planning to do once we end this thing once and for all. From a professional standpoint, it's not pertinent to our mission at hand since you have already agreed to help us achieve our goal."

She looked at him for a while longer, obviously having another question on the tip of her tongue, but at the last minute she looked as if she decided against it. Instead, she nodded and looked back out to the flower field. "Good call, Sir Leonhart."

Squall blinked, and this time turned his entire head in her direction. "... Sir?"

Gina giggled apprehensively. "You really don't know, do you? It's either that, or you always knew and you're pretty clever about hiding it." A long pause accompanied by a blank stare greeted her. "Well, I guess not. I've been thinking long and hard about what you did and what you said for me, at the time when those people from Esthar tried to take me away and I refused. I guess it's time to get you clear on what you jumped into, along with all of the other things we have on our plates already." She turned to face him squarely. "As a SeeD under your strict command, I accept the fact that you will be personally responsible for my well-being from this point onward. But as a sorceress, you have stepped into the position of knighthood."

"... knighthood..." Squall's head felt slightly fuzzy, as if his brain was trying to remember the details of something that he felt was already strangely familiar to him.

"Yeah. Basically, the purpose of a knight is to keep his sorceress from going insane. This is meant as a sort of check and balance system to keep things like the Sorceress Wars from happening. Unfortunately, if a sorceress doesn't find a knight or ends up with a knight like Seifer or something, then that whole idea goes to shit and there is chaos. I was on the edge of completely losing it and blowing up everyone who stood in my way with a very intense Flare spell back there when they took everyone hostage. But you jumped in front of me. Ordinarily, that wouldn't have worked if it was any other person, but you put a stop to it just like that. That's when the transition was made."

Squall didn't know whether or not he was still listening or just lost in thought with a voice telling him things from an unknown source. _A knight... I didn't know. Or did I?_ All he remembered was standing there behind Gina, fully intent on letting her fight her own battles like she said she planned to do, and then it was if his brain screamed at him and told him to move and his body was on auto pilot. He vaguely remembered from one of his frequent black out sessions as Laguna about some movie about a knight defending his sorceress from a very large red dragon that turned out to be real, but Squall really didn't see the meaning of that flashback. Until now, that is.

"So, umm... yeah." Gina sighed, fidgeting slightly. "I know it's a lot to take in, but it's important to know at least for the safety of everyone else. As long as you... do things like you did back there for me, to help me not go hayshit, then there's less of a chance of Ultimecia possessing me or situations making me lose control and hurt random people. So, if it makes you uncomfortable because it's me, then don't think of it that way. Think of it as you just doing your job as a SeeD to protect the public, even if it is an alternate way of doing so."

Squall nodded absently, coming out of his mental fog. "Seifer is... was Edea's knight."

Gina exhaled slowly. She was getting nervous about explaining all of that to him. She was afraid it would be too much for him, since just before she was telling him to back off because she would be trying to leave as soon as possible. Now she just got done telling him that he would have to be all but attached to her hip to keep her powers in check. Even though she couldn't help how things turned out, Gina felt like it was a tad cruel to do this to someone like Squall who was still obviously trying to get over his past. Needless to say, she was relieved at the slight change in conversation. "More specifically, Seifer is Ultimecia's knight. But instead of keeping her in check, he's giving her free reign over whatever she wants to do... which, as you can see, is pretty damn bad."

"Do you think Seifer will try to stop us from getting to Ultimecia, if we can?"

"Most probably. Even if she doesn't have a medium to go through anymore, it doesn't mean that her hold on him has lessened, and it definitely doesn't mean that he'll stop fighting for her time compression cause."

Squall inwardly flinched. He was tired of fighting people he knew. He started off fighting Edea, then Seifer. _Not to mention the time could come when Gina ends up fighting all of us... No! That won't happen if I make sure I do a good job at keeping her out of trouble, which is what I said I'd do. _He was once again jarred out of his thoughts by footsteps jogging towards him from behind.

"Hey guys! Sorry to interrupt, but we got a transmission coming in on the Ragnarok from Esthar." Zell panted, still slightly tired from the Frisbee throwing from earlier. "They said they have a plan for defeating Ultimecia and they want to hire us for the job."

The commander frowned. "It could be just a trap to get us back in Esthar so they can try to take Gina away again."

"I don't think so. After the stunts pulled the last time, I'm not sure anybody who's in their right mind would try something stupid like that again. And besides, the message didn't come from any old person in Esthar. It came from the Presidential Palace."

Gina gasped. "The President..."

Zell continued. "Not to mention that there's been another piece of unfortunate news. During all the confusion with us taking off when we found that you and Gina were safe, Ellone's disappeared. Nobody knows who took her, but just going on what we know, it's probably someone working for Ultimecia's cause."

Squall pursed his lips. _And that person would most probably be Seifer, since he's the only one still under Ultimecia's control._

"To top it all off, the guy we spoke to about all of this was named Kiros. Now, I'm not sure how many folks around here have that name, but WE know someone. It's our first real connection to the people that we've seen in the Dream World!" Zell explained excitedly.

"... Alright. Let's go, then."


	50. Chapter 50

"So... what was the point of what Matron said? I don't get it." Selphie scratched her head as the group walked down the slightly disheveled transparent blue road through Esthar, on their way to the Presidential Palace. The city was still in the middle of cleaning up after the panic that the Lunar Cry and Lunatic Pandora caused, but thankfully it also meant that anyone who would know about Gina being a sorceress was busy worrying about the city and not about the group of SeeDs traversing through.

Squall sighed. "She told us about how she tried to protect all of us at the orphanage from the sorceress she encountered 13 years ago because she wanted to let us know that before now, she wasn't sure if there would be an end to her troubles. But because of everything that has happened, it gave her hope that no matter how bad or impossible things may get, there is always an end. So, we shouldn't lose track of what we're going to do."

Sharon and Gina couldn't resist a quick glance at each other. They both knew that the story Edea told had another important point to it, albeit it being unintentional on her part. How would anyone know, at least at that point in the "game", that the same sorceress that Edea met 13 years ago would be the same sorceress that they would defeat sometime in the near future? Both Gina and Sharon knew that this was a good sign that they were still on the right track, despite all of the diverging paths that were taken up until that point. However, it didn't make them any more comfortable with the idea that they had to eventually FIGHT Ultimecia. Knowing the outcome didn't help pre-battle jitters, either.

Zell stretched and looked up as the edge of the grandiose Presidential Palace entrance came into view. "Wow. I almost can't believe that in a few minutes, we're going to be meeting the PRESIDENT of this awesome city. I almost feel as if there should be some kind of fanfare or whatever to greet us. Cause this is a big moment, ya know?"

Sharon grinned and jumped in front of the group. "Well, we can make up one ourselves! Because you're right, Zell, this IS a great moment. So... I've got the perfect song!" She started doing a little skip to the tune. "Weeeeee'rrreee... OFF to see the Wizard! The wonderful Wizard of Oz. You'll find he is a whiz of a Wiz! If ever a Wiz, there was! If ever, oh! ever a Wiz there was The Wizard of Oz is one because, because because because BECCAAAUUUSE... because of the wonderful things he does! So, we're off to see the... what?" She trailed off as she realized the group had not only fallen behind a couple of steps, but was looking at her like she'd finally, honest to god, gone insane.

Zell blinked. "What the hell is a Wiz?"

"Never mind about that, but what's Oz? Is that a place? That's a weird name for a place, if it is one." Selphie put in.

"Not to mention the word 'because' is redundantly mentioned in a sad attempt to fill in the song." Quistis mused, somewhat to herself.

Irvine shrugged. "I guess I kinda get the point... but then again, if I think about it too much, I don't get it anymore. At least it was cute?"

Gina tried to interject some kind of sense into the muddle. "Well umm... a Wiz is short for wizard, and think of it like a male sorceress."

Selphie started. "WHAT? Do those really EXIST? How come we don't know about them?"

Quistis shook her head. "They don't. Remember in my class where we went briefly over the history of sorceresses? Females are the only ones capable of wielding that power. Males don't exhibit that ability."

_Because their role is to be a knight to said sorceress._ Squall thought absentmindedly.

Sharon did a face palm. "What the hell, guys? It's a stupid SONG, it's not meant to be taken apart and analyzed like a specimen in a biology lab! If nothing else, just sum it up to the fact that I'm insane and only something that random and out of place could be generated from the mess that is generally assumed to be my brain. Does THAT make enough sense?"

A moment's pause, and then a murmured consensus greeted her.

Squall decided to change the subject. He still couldn't understand how a group of people who were supposed to be charged with saving the world from a mad sorceress on the verge of time compression could get so distracted by something stupid like a random song. "Well, we're here, so if we could all find the time to focus, it'd be great."

Their minds now off of the song an onto more important matters at hand, the group quietly rode the transporter that zipped them above most of the city and let them off at the end of a long hallway that was lushly carpeted in maroon. Walking to the opposite end was accompanied by a brief glance of Esthar below them, and the lone door automatically opened to a large, circular room with a floor so nicely polished that it mirrored all of the contours that filled the rest of the space, glittering in the light that was streaming in from the picture window at the head. To one side, a very tall and graceful dark skinned man stood next to a larger man with a peculiar scar that trailed along a side of his face.

_Ward. Kiros. _ Squall then shifted his gaze to the other inhabitant of the room, who was standing at the window, looking out at the city. _And that's probably..._

The man that had been identified to be Ward simply looked over at the man caught up in the scenery before him. The message got across rather simply, although no words were exchanged. Turning around, the President of Esthar faced his new visitors with a smile that could light up a room.

"Hey there! Been wanting to meet you guys! You were inside my head from time to time, right? When we were fighting, I swear your presence just gave us what seemed like waves of power. We thought they were some kind of faeries flying over us."

"_You_ thought there were faeries." Kiros interjected.

The President waved it off. "So anyway, I'm Laguna. President Laguna of Esthar. Pleased to meet ya. If we weren't in a state of emergency, I'd talk to you some more, but... Well, whatever. Let's talk! What do you wanna know?"

_What is up with this country?_ Squall put his thoughts to rest for a moment. "Well, before we get started, although most of us already are familiar with you from our... previous encounters, there are two here that aren't. Ward, Kiros, Laguna... I'd like you to meet Regina Stewart and Sharon Gladden. They'll be helping us in this mission."

Sharon and Gina shook each of their hands politely, even though they both knew they knew more about the men in the room than the rest of them did. "We've heard a lot about you all from our friends, mostly because we keep being around when they go to the 'Dream World', as it's been named." Gina smiled. "It's really nice to finally meet the people behind the legend."

Laguna laughed, slightly embarrassed. "Legends? Hardly. Well... except that one time when we-"

Kiros cut him off. "You'll never get going if he keeps talking. So why don't you guys throw out some questions, and he'll try to answer them."

"How the hell did you get so hot?" Sharon blurted out, making Laguna blush a peculiar shade of pink.

"Sharii-chan!" Gina squeaked.

"What? Kiros SAID to throw out some questions."

"I think he meant REAL questions." Irvine pointed out.

Sharon turned to him, a haughty look on her face. "What, jealous? There are no such things as stupid questions. I bet Selphie wanted to ask the same thing, right?"

"YEAH! I mean..." Selphie covered up her excitement with a cough.

_I really don't believe this. _ Squall rubbed the familiar spot on his forehead with his forefinger before clearing his throat pointedly. "Whatever. Explain the mission to defeat Ultimecia."

Laguna turned to the leader of the group. "Man, you look way too serious. But at least you get straight to the heart of the matter, just like a workaholic SeeD."

"Iz it my turn?" A familiar voice interjected from the doorway, and the stout eccentric Dr. Odine waddled his way into the room.

"Yeah. Make it short and easy to understand. These guys don't have time to listen to you confuse them." Laguna said, getting a smirk out of Ward and an incredulous gaze from the doctor.

"I will talk however I vant!" Dr. Odine shot back before formally addressing Squall. "I have received ze information from ze ex-sorceress Edea via transmission direct from your Garden that ze Sorceress Ultimecia comes from ze future to possess ze sorceress of present day. Meaning she leaves her body in ze future and sends only her consciousness here. Does zat sound familiar to you?"

Squall nodded. "It's like when Ellone sent our consciousness back to the past."

"You're a smart one! My first guess was zat someone in ze future with an ability like Ellone was sending ze sorceress back here to our time. But no! Zat is not ze answer. So how does ze sorceress come back to this time...? You vant to hear how?"

Gina sighed heavily, not wanting to hear Dr. Odine drag the group on what he thought was a thrilling cliffhanger. "You created a machine out of examining Ellone's brain patterns that was a flop in this time, but somehow in the future it was perfected and became something that actually works, right?"

Dr. Odine blinked in complete surprise. "Yes, zat is correct. I named ze machine 'Junction Machine Ellone'. But how would you know that?"

As if on cue, Zell and Selphie chimed in. "She's PSYCHIC!"

"She iz? I did not know zat. I will have to examine her further to discover ze secret to..."

"The HELL you will." Sharon growled. "Step the fuck off, dorkass."

"She really is? I have to admit, that must be pretty freaky, because then she'd be able to tell you almost everything you were going to find out and..." Laguna cut himself off and his eyes lit up as he had a small epiphany. "Hey! Since you're psychic and all, can you tell me where I left my favorite pen? I had it just yesterday and suddenly it's gone, and I swear I checked everywhere for it. Like, I was sitting right there, writing out some kind of document... the only thing I can remember about that is that it was something important... and when I was finished I just leaned back and stretched and then-"

"JUNCTION MACHINE ELLONE." Squall all but shouted, once again having to bring the attention back to the matter at hand. Suddenly he felt that he was an elementary school teacher trying to teach a bunch of kids with ADD how to do mathematics. _At least I know now that being a schoolteacher would not be an acceptable occupation for me._

"Ok, we continue ze story! Let's see... There is only one way to defeat Ultimecia. You must kill her in ze future. There iz nothing we can do unless we go to ze future. There is no way to jump to ze future under normal circumstances. But there iz still a way! It iz because Sorceress Ultimecia plans to compress time. Compressing time with magic... Vat good will it do for ze sorceress to compress time? There may be many reasons, but it doesn't matter. Let's just figure out vat Ultimecia iz up to. In order for Ultimecia to exist in this time, she must take over ze body of a sorceress from ze present."

Sharon drew in a breath. "So, lemme guess. You're going to have to use Gina as bait for this bitch to defeat her?"

Dr. Odine nodded. "Yes, eventually. But ze plan also includes taking advantage of Ellone's power, as well as using another powerful sorceress in our time, one we all know about. Sorceress Adel has not yet awakened, however she iz probably awakening inside Lunatic Pandora. Since Adel iz ze one I assume zat Ultimecia wants more and she only used Regina to get to her in ze first place, she will want to posses Adel when she wakes up. However, ze results would be horrific. Adel iz a horrible sorceress. If Adel's consciousness wins over Ultimecia, Adel will first destroy this era."

Quistis took a minute to think about it. "So... would we have to some way destroy Sorceress Adel before Ultimecia can use her? And that would leave Gina as the only available conduit for Ultimecia's power."

"Exactly. First, go to Lunatic Pandora. Ellone's probably being held captive inside, so rescue her first. Then kill Sorceress Adel before ze awakening process is completed. Now, we're left with Regina as ze only sorceress of this era. Then wait for Ultimecia to possess her. When Ultimecia arrives, it's Ellone's turn. Ellone will send Regina back to ze past with Ultimecia. Ellone will have to send Regina and Ultimecia inside another sorceress she knows in the past. Edea or Adel... Zat's up to Ellone. Once Ultimecia iz in ze past, she'll use ze time compression magic. We will see some influence here. I don't know vat kind of influence, but once Ellone feels it, she'll cut Regina and Ultimecia off from ze past. Regina will come back to this world. Ultimecia also goes back to her own world. Vat would be left is ze time compressed world. Past, present future will all get mixed together. You will keep moving through ze time compression toward ze future. Once you're out of ze time compression, zat will be Ultimecia's world. It's all up to you after zat." With his final words hanging in the air, Dr. Odine made his exit.

Sharon squinted. "My head really does hurt after listening to that circus reject talk for half a fucking hour. I'm not sure I get it, but no matter what parts I don't get, I DON'T like the fact that we're not only going up against Adel, from what I hear was such a crazy ho that you all HAD to ship her up to space, but we're subjecting Gina to the one thing we're supposed to protect her from? Aw, hell naw. Not down with that at ALL."

Gina shrugged. "Well, there really seems to be no other way. It would be either risk Ultimecia and Adel creating havoc for certain or run the smaller risk that Ultimecia would take over my mind and create havoc."

"Like the Lunar Base incident?" Squall said bluntly, causing Gina to flinch. He immediately regretted bringing that up again, since he knew that she wasn't comfortable with what happened. But he just didn't want to see Gina being the victim of something more horrible than that. "What if Ultimecia somehow asserts herself more powerfully through you? Are you sure you'll be able to withhold her consciousness while being thrown from present to past?"

"I'll have to do it." Gina said firmly. "And besides, I might have a better chance this time around, since I'm actually conscious. If I prepare myself, then maybe it won't be so bad. I have a stronger will than most give me credit for, and I'm counting on Ultimecia to be too foolhardy to realize she'd been tricked."

"Well, sounds like you all are willing to do the mission, no matter how confusing Dr. Odine made it sound." Laguna laughed. "Tell you what. Let's all do the final briefing on the Ragnarok! I've always wanted to ride that thing! Plus, the name sounds so cool!"

Ward looked at Squall. "..."

Squall just stared back until Kiros translated. "Oh, Ward says that he'd like to say that Laguna isn't always like this and is really a professional when it comes down to it, but we all know that's not true by now. After awhile, you'll come to appreciate how he goes about things."

Squall decided he'd take Ward's word for it.

Later on, everyone was aboard the Ragnarok once again, only with Laguna, Ward, and Kiros in tow. At the head of the table in the meeting room, the President of Esthar gave off the leadership vibe that undoubtedly inspired the loyalty and respect from those around him, despite his easy-going and carefree nature.

"Alright! Everyone! From here, we go straight to our final target, Ultimecia!" He started energetically. "Let's go over the plan again. First, enter Lunatic Pandora and rescue Ellone! Next, you fight Sorceress Adel! It'll be a surprise attack. Show no mercy. Now here comes the tricky part! Adel will need to pass on her powers before being defeated. Gina, you'll be willing to accept them?"

Gina nodded. "Yes." She already accepted Edea's powers in the first place, so Adel's would be somewhat of the same process. _Not only that, but I'd need the extra power boost in order to attempt ripping a hole back to GVSU._

"Good! Next, we wait for Ultimecia to possess Gina! It'll be hard, but we've already heard that you've prepared yourself for this. Are you sure?"

Gina nodded again. "Yes."

"That's the spirit! Then, Ellone sends Gina and Ultimecia to the past! Ellone brings back Gina! Then head to the future through compressed time!" Laguna finished.

Irvine leaned back in his chair. "Geez, you make it sound so simple. Why couldn't you have explained it rather than Dr. Odine?"

"What, and have to hear his mouth about 'it was my invention zat will be ze key to you solving ze mystery!' or something like that? No way. It's best to let that man talk when he wants to, because he likes to feel important." Laguna became a tad more serious. "Ultimecia lives far in the future where none of us can technically exist. There's only one way to make yourself exist in a world like that! As friends, don't forget one another! As friends, believe in one another! Believe in your friends' existence! And they'll also believe in yours. To be friends, to like one another, and to love one another... You can't do these things alone. You need somebody. Right, guys? What place reminds you of your friends? Imagine being in that place with all your friends. Once time compression begins, think of that place and try to get there! That's all! That place will welcome you. You'll be able to get there no matter what period you're in! You need love and friendship for this mission! And the courage to believe it. It's all about love, friendship, and courage! I'm counting on you guys!"

Quistis folded her hands in front of her. "Well, if that's the case, then we should figure out now what place we're going to think of to get us to Ultimecia and eventually back out of time compression once she's defeated. Any ideas?"

Selphie raised her hand, then realized that she wasn't in class, and lowered it with a sheepish grin. "Well, I was thinking... that we should all think of Matron's house. The orphanage. It holds a common ground for most of us, and would be something easier to use than something mobile like the Garden, or something more unfamiliar to us." She then looked over to Gina and Sharon. "Is that okay with you guys?"

Gina nodded, something she was doing a lot of ever since she got on this ship. _This is their show, after all. Sharii and I are just the interactive spectators._

"So... you mean that if I forget Irvine completely exists, then he'll fade away into time compression?" Sharon asked to no one in particular. "Fucking SWEET! I wish it was that easy in real life."

Irvine pulled a pretty impressive puppy-dog face. "Aw, you wouldn't really do that to me, would you?"

Sharon seemed to muse it over, then begrudgingly replied, "No, I probably wouldn't."

"See? I knew you loved me."

"Don't write a check your ass can't cash, cowboy." She snorted, and left the room to head to the bridge. Eventually everyone trickled out, with Squall bringing up the rear. Before he left the room, he turned to Laguna. "Love and friendship and all that sounds corny, but everyone seems to be up for it."

Now it was Laguna's turn to be sheepish. "You think it'll work?"

Squall had to stop from literally doing a double-take. "What, you don't know after all of that?"

"Well... to be honest, I was just saying what sounded and felt right at the time. Technically, nobody can know for sure what to expect with time compression, since it's nothing anyone has experienced before. But umm..." He scratched the back of his head. "I'm sure you guys will be able to work it out."

"We'll try." Squall then turned and left the room, leaving only Laguna, Kiros, and Ward to remain.

After a moment's silence, Laguna let out a small smile. "He has his mother's eyes."

Kiros agreed. "That he does. So... think you're going to tell him?"

Laguna's face took on a pained expression. "I don't know. He's gone without a father for so long... and even though he's a lot stiffer than what I would've liked, he's grown up nicely without one. He's probably assumed that both of his folks were killed in the last war or something. Who would I be to disrupt that? And out of all the folks in the world, how would I expect him to accept that I'm the one who'd be long lost father he never had? I dunno... maybe from being in our heads all that time, he'll piece it together himself, and he can decide if he wants to acknowledge it or not."

Ward shot him a concerned look. "..."

"Yeah, I know... he might not. And the person who would suffer the most if he never did realize it would be me, because I'd be the only one to know." Sighing heavily, he ran a hand through his long brown hair and turned to face the window. "Well, I'll think about it. If nothing else, I'll most definitely have to wait until after all of this Ultimecia business is done and over with. He doesn't need anything like that hanging over his head with a big battle awaiting him, that's for sure."

Kiros and Ward remained silent, but exchanged glances. They both were thinking the same thing: _Let's hope they all make it back so that he'll have the opportunity to tell him what should have been known a long time ago._


	51. Chapter 51

**A/N: ** LOL! Yeah, I'm alive. I swear, I am. What happened? Well, life set me up the bomb. Writer's Block, too. Guess what else? I graduated from college. And then I went to China again. And now I am back. To finish Severed Reality. I mean it this time, dammit. There's nothing to distract me now that college is over with. I'm sure all of you will have a heart attack if and when you realize that I am not dead and this story is resurrected. I know, it's been just over a year since my last update and I need to be shot, I agree. But anyway... here's a chapter for you while I write the next one:D?

* * *

"Hey, Sharii-chan, I was just thinking about something randomly..." Gina started, standing right outside the door to the bridge. Everyone was inside, with Selphie as the overexcited pilot, steering them directly towards Lunatic Pandora. In just a couple of minutes, they were going to put into motion the events that would lead them to the end of Disk 3. To clear her thoughts a bit, Gina has stepped outside, and Sharon had followed, knowing her best friend would want the company of someone else in the same boat.

"What is it? I hope it's not one of your Worst Case Scenario things, since that won't calm anyone down." Sharon replied playfully, also trying to take her mind off of what could happen once they landed.

Gina shook her head. "Well, not exactly. I was just thinking... that if this place exists... does that mean that others like this might exist? Like, is there a world for Final Fantasy X somewhere? Or maybe Tekken? Or even Silent Hill, as bad as that may be?"

Sharon took off her cowboy hat and examined it while pondering the possibilities, fingering the string of seashells around the top. "I don't know. I don't think that's anything that anybody is supposed to know, for sure. But I think that it could be more than possible for all of those things to exist. Shit, after being through all that we've been through with this, I think it's safe to say that anything goes at this point." She laughed, and put her hat back on. "If all those other worlds actually do exist, then I don't think we were ever meant to find out about each other, besides what we already do know."

Gina tilted her head to one side curiously. "What do you mean, what we already do know? If everyone even somewhat assumed that places like this did exist, I think the government might be trying to find ways to open portals like the one we found to get to them."

"Not like that. But I think... everything is connected in its own way. Our imaginations, fictional novels, video games, and movies; what if all of that is just our way of unconsciously connecting ourselves to other worlds like this? We wouldn't have to have concrete evidence that this existed, because our NOT knowing for sure makes our hopes and dreams in 'silly' stuff like this all the more powerful. Hell, what happens if our hopes and dreams actually MAKE it so this place exists? We were just the lucky ones who actually got to discover the truth for ourselves."

"Hmm. If you're right, then what about the portal? That's something that really doesn't make sense. Does that mean that for some reason, our imaginations made a rip in reality to connect our worlds together? Geez, if that's true... then that would be really bad in the case of games like Resident Evil, Halo, or other potentially harming conditions that could come about if more portals like the one we stepped through start popping up."

Sharon flinched. "Oh god, T-virus zombies walking around campus. I think I would seriously have to kill myself, then. But... no. I don't think so. At least I HOPE so. People like us aren't equipped to handle things like that. That's why there are fictional characters to go along with the fictional storylines, because no matter how normal they try to make the main character sound, you know good and damn well that after awhile, things aren't so normal about their situation and they can't be normal to do the things needed to come to an appropriate conclusion. I think, as cliché as this is going to sound, that we just stumbled upon a 'glitch'. I have no idea where to start bullshitting up some theory about how the glitch happened, but it did, and look where it got us."

"Yeah. No need to remind me." Gina scratched her head. "I dunno... so far, it hasn't been too bad, but I see what you mean. If anyone ELSE discovered this, then they might end up dead or do something crazy like leak the information to someone else and... well, I could come up with a million worst case scenarios on that."

"OOOH, HERE WE GO!" Selphie bounced from inside the bridge. "Main guns ready!"

"This is really going to be crazy. I wonder if we can really break through." Quistis worried.

"What's so difficult about it? Just fire like crazy and make a big hole, BOOM!" Selphie replied, a big smile on her face.

Gina and Sharon looked at each other and decided it would be best to continue their theories later and find something to hold onto now. While they were getting situated, Gina's mind still continued to wander. _If by chance our imaginations and creativity do make it so these things exist... then for the sake of this world and for the friends I was never supposed to have, I can't forget them. Even if I never see them again after all of this is said and done, I still want to be able to say that because of my contribution, no matter how small and inferior it may be compared to the rest of the Final Fantasy VIII fan base, that they can still live on._

A slight tremor vibrated through the ship, signaling the firing of just about every cannon the Ragnarok had equipped. "Well... that wasn't so bad." Sharon said, and unattached herself from the wall she was clinging onto for dear life to enter the bridge. What she saw, however, were the remnants of the light cannon missiles disappearing like raindrops on a large body of water. Blinking, she realized that the Lunatic Pandora was very large and very well prepared against unwelcome guests such as themselves.

She also realized that they were speeding towards the oversized Jenga block very fast.

"What the hell... SLOW DOWN!!" She shrieked, rushing to cling to something else that seemed stationary enough. "THE GODDAMN THING HAS SHIELDS!!"

"And so do we. SHIELDS!" Irvine shouted, and as Selphie pushed a couple of buttons on the very intimidating panel in front of her, an almost melodious humming sound coursed through the ship.

Sharon cast a worried look back to Gina, who just shrugged and continued to brace herself.

_My god... this is gonna suck so damn bad..._

In a brilliant flash of light, the opposing shields collided violently, almost nearly throwing everyone through the windshield. Frowning in anticipation, Selphie laid on the thrusters, and eventually the barrier around the Lunatic Pandora seemed to stretch like rubber and eventually become too thin to hold the tremendous force plowing through. As soon as the first half of the ship was through the shields, another furious blast of cannon shots found their mark this time and exploded the side of a wall a hole large enough for even the ship to land somewhat safely.

Selphie touched another few buttons on the dashboard and the power in the ship gently hummed to a stop.

After a moment's silence, Zell cleared his throat. "So uh... where'd you learn to do all that?"

"What? Oh, flying? Flight simulation." Selphie grinned. "Trabia Garden used to secretly train aviators, most of which ended up in the army. We were by far the most isolated of the Gardens and evidently in a prime spot for such training, so it worked out for everyone I suppose. I didn't want to be in the army, but I thought flying around in a jet would be so cool, so when everyone was asleep I used to sneak out to the simulation rooms and play around a little."

"That's interesting. I never knew of that... in fact, I don't think anyone did." Quistis thought out loud.

"Well, I guess that was the point. If they wanted everyone to know, then they could have done that sort of thing anywhere." Squall finally spoke up, and made his way to the bridge door. "Ready to go?" Although he directed that question most obviously at everyone, he looked at Gina when he said it, knowing that from here on out it would be most dangerous for her.

Feeling knots in her stomach but not letting her face betray anything, she nodded and followed Squall and the others out of the bridge and to one of the doors that would lead them outside. Whether or not the knots were from the task at hand or because Squall looked at her was something that she would never know.

Sharon rushed up to walk next to Selphie. "So, outside of all that flight simulation bullshit... what about all that other crap you pulled off?"

Selphie flashed an impish smile. "Well... I might have winged it a bit."

"Gamer's instincts. Good reflexes, headstrong resolve, all without the use of a Game Shark." Sharon nodded in approval. Seeing Selphie look somewhat confused, she shook her head and added, "Basically, you rock. Hi-five."

Stepping off of the ship, they joined Laguna, Kiros, and Ward. Squall admitted to himself that he had almost forgotten that they were aboard the ship, but ironically not forgotten the speech that Laguna had given the group before arriving at Tear's Point. He didn't notice that he had been watching the Estharian President since disembarking from Ragnarok until Laguna turned around from surveying the area and met his gaze. Something flickered in his eyes, but before Squall had time to figure out what it meant, Laguna flashed his trademark smile and looked more generally towards the rest of the group.

"Watch your step, kids! Seems like we made quite a mess getting in here, and I wouldn't want any turned ankles this far into the game." Gina blanched visibly at that statement, and Sharon laid a reassuring hand on her shoulder.

Kiros noticed this and chuckled. "Actually, he's just saying that because he himself almost took a spill right over there." Laguna looked at him as if to fire some defensive retort, but a look from Ward made him rethink that and laugh good-naturedly. "Eh, so I give; I'm clumsy. Not much a surprise, huh? But anyway, I know of a way we could probably get to the core of this place. It's a maze in there, believe me, and it's important to find our bearings as soon as possible. I just hope I remember which ways to turn..." Laguna trailed off as other voices drifted to their ears, coming from the crumbling mess they made of the wall.

"Big sound, this way. It's probably them, ya know?"

"THEM? NO, IMPOSSIBLE."

Zell face palmed. "Are you serious? It can't be..."

As if to answer, the figures of Raijin and Fujin came into view amidst the settling dust clouds surrounding the self-made entrance to Lunatic Pandora. Raijin was holding a very long and pretty broad staff that seemed to accent his own broad and muscular stature, and while Fujin was definitely more slight, she held her own ground by bringing forth a very dangerous looking boomerang that glinted ominously in the light.

"Ahhh! It IS Squall, ya know!?" Raijin exclaimed.

"SHOCK. GOOD. CONVENIENT." Fujin replied, surveying the crowd and letting her eye settle on the form of Gina.

Raijin straightened up, as if just now remembering that he wasn't greeting house guests. "That's right. Hand over Gina, ya know!?"

"Eff that. Kiss my ass." Sharon stated. "You don't even know what the hell you're doing, do you?"

"Sharon's right. This goes far beyond any loyalties you may have with Seifer." Quistis brought up, stepping forward with all of the command a respected professor from Balamb Garden can possess. "This can determine whether or not we survive. This includes not only us, but you AND Seifer, not to mention the lives of all the other people on this planet! Now, I've had the privilege of having you both in my classes, and I don't think my judgment is incorrect when I say that neither of you are callous enough to commit this grave of a crime."

Raijin and Fujin exchanged glances. For a moment, everyone thought that they could get by without a meaningless fight. But when Fujin took a step forward and said, "PERSUASION, USELESS. SEIZE." and Raijin nodded in agreement and took a fighting stance, they knew that it was not to be.

"Seize? Plz to be not doing any of that." Sharon took off her cowboy hat and threw it to the ground. "Since you want to do something so badly, then I'm sure we can provide some entertainment." She lifted her chin to Fujin. "Since you like to bark your speech like a dog, I guess it'd be okay for me to address you as a bitch, right?"

Fujin's eye narrowed dangerously. "MOVE."

"'Kay." Sharon launched herself at Fujin, catching her off guard and knocking them both off balance backwards. Dumbfounded for a second, everyone watched the two girls have the catfight of the century. It probably would have been hilarious if the situation wasn't so serious. Still not wanting to fight the remaining unoccupied person blocking their passage, Squall tried his hand at diplomacy, knowing Raijin to be the more sensible (or at least, pliable) of the two.

"Look. You know we're not going to just hand over Gina. But we don't want to fight you, either. Well, despite..." They both took a moment to glance at the still grappling females rolling around nearby. "We came here to take Ellone back, and to prevent this whole mess with evil sorceresses. It's not worth it to fight us. So... just let us go."

Raijin looked like he was having the largest battle with himself and couldn't think about fighting anyone else. And in the end, he didn't fight at all.

"We anticipated something like this, ya know." He backed up a few paces, and behind him further they could see a shadow of something big somewhat hovering. "You're right. It's NOT worth it to fight you. So we got a surprise for ya; I hope it gives ya the warm welcome you gave us, ya know!"

The hovering shadow came into full light, looking like a floating torso clad in shining armor. It was large, towering over everyone by at least three feet, and the fact that it levitated made the height difference even more noticeable. In the middle of knocking Fujin's weapon away, Sharon looked up and realized that there was a strange robotic thing in close proximity. "What the-" She never got to finish her exclamation because Fujin saw that she was distracted and kneed her promptly in the stomach, effectively knocking all of the air out of her. By the time she got half of her breath back, she looked up to see Raijin and Fujin disappearing back inside Lunatic Pandora, leaving the rest of them to battle the android.

"How convenient." Sharon grumbled, pulling out one of her pistols and taking aim at one of the many revolving bolts and things on the side of Mobile 8 and letting loose a volley of shots that didn't seem to do as much damage as they should have. It didn't matter, because she didn't have time to fire any more as a wire suddenly shot out from one of the 'arms' of the robot and wrapped itself rapidly around her wrists, effectively binding them together so tight that she couldn't even release her weapon. Gaping at her predicament, it was the firing of other shots that jarred Mobile 8 that brought her out of her surprised state.

Laguna shouldered a rather large machine gun, but he made the weapon look weightless the way he effortlessly held it in one hand. "Let me tell you, it's been too long since I've been in the midst of action. Glad I brought this along." He took aim again. "For old time's sake." On either side of him, Kiros slipped back into a graceful fighting stance, the blades of his claws just as sharp as they were when he was in the army. Ward wasn't defenseless, as he unearthed a rather large pole from the rubble that was similar to the harpoon he used to wield.

"Ready when you are, captain." Kiros said, a shadow of a grin appearing on his face.

"I don't call all the shots anymore." Laguna looked over to Squall. "What do you say, commander?"

As much as he supposed he should feel honored, he was STILL not used to the whole "Let's look to Squall for encouragement and permission!" thing. "... Whatever."

"And that's Squall language for 'kick its ass'!" Zell cracked his knuckles and ran forward and landed a powerful punch to the very center of Mobile 8, leaving a dent and sending the entire thing wailing backwards.

"HEY! WATCH IT! I'M STILL ATTACHED TO THIS THING!" Sharon yelled, tumbling along with it.

"Whoops! Sorry. Uh, maybe there's a way we can... hey, what's that?" Zell looked to see a peculiar light coming into existence from an eye on the front of the thing he just punched, and thanks to his ADD, he kind of stared at it in fascination.

"MOVE! IT'S A LASER!" Gina shrieked, and Zell's eyes widened and backed up, but not before the weapon fired, a blinding white light shooting at alarming speed towards him. Knowing that the thing would most probably burn a hole right through him and continue on to fry the rest of the group, she thought fast and projected a quick reflect spell in front of him. She hoped that since the weapon was light based, the spell would protect him despite it not being a magic-based attack. Whether or not the spell she cast heard her hopes or if it was a stroke of luck, she didn't know, but the laser bounced off the shield and refracted to a spot about three feet away from Zell, producing an impressive hole that burned ominously.

"... Wow." Selphie breathed. "That could have been Zell."

"And eventually the rest of us, as well." Squall loaded his gunblade and looked ahead. "We need to find a way to dismantle that main weapon before we can chance doing much else, and I guess before that we need to detach Sharon from it before dealing it any kind of damage that could chance injuring her in the process. I'll rush up and cut the wire holding her there. Irvine, can you aim a shot to the center of that laser eye? The rest of us will cover you."

"Will do." Irvine crouched while lining his sights up, willing himself to sink into the right state of mind where only he and his target existed.

Squall lowered his blade and charged, watching as the eye lined itself up with his figure and began glowing again. Stopping abruptly, he hoped that he gave Irvine enough time to line up his sights before he got fried to a crisp. As a welcome answer, a shot rang out and smashed the direct center of the laser eye, sending shards showering and causing a black smoke to billow out from the hole in large quantities. Squall inwardly praised that Mobile 8 didn't have a shield for all of it's terrible glory, but he cut short when he realized that the wire that was holding Sharon now held her suspended very far above ground and quite firmly, despite her frantic kicking. As an afterthought, Squall realized what it was going to do and rushed forward, hoping he wouldn't be too late.

Sharon loved amusement park rides, most notably roller coasters. She was notorious around her friends for having memorized the entire layout of Cedar Point in Sandusky, Ohio in order to get to all of the roller coasters in record time. But she still had her limits, for she still refused to go on the Rip Cord which was basically a bungee jump with an attendant strapped to your back to make sure you don't screw it up. When she realized that she was getting an impromptu Rip Cord ride anyway, panic seized her throat so much that she couldn't scream. She was shot back to the days where she WASN'T a thrill enthusiast and used to sit in terror on all rides, anticipating doom.

Squall, in an upward slash, cut the wire clean through with his gunblade, but realized that Sharon was sailing overhead and quite far, with the wire trailing the route like a kite. At the same time, Mobile 8 started pulling out all the stops on the secondary weapons, which mostly consisted of Fira and Blizzara spells. Reaching up, he jammed the edge of his weapon into the left of the machine and sawed through, causing a large hunk of metal to fall off and clunk to the ground.

_I really hate life right now, but not enough to die like this. _Mobile 8 had managed to throw her quite high and far, far enough to reach over the ledge of Lunatic Pandora. Looking down and seeing just how far she was above the ground, she realized what people meant when they saw their life flash before their eyes. Plummeting and hating the feeling of her stomach not quite catching up to the speed in which her body was falling, she shut her eyes tight and most possibly prayed for the first time since she left the church. It seemed like an eternity until she would most possibly hit the ground, so she was caught between praying and bracing herself for death and half wondering if she would actually FEEL the impact or would fate bless her and have her black out before that point happened.

"AAAAGH!" Sharon screamed finally, but not because she hit ground. The wire in which held her wrists captive yanked, which prevented her from the death fall but was a painful jar that caused almost all of the muscles in her arms to pop and then burn from the strain. Not knowing what possessed her, she made the mistake of looking down and seeing that she was dangling at least 3 miles above the ground. _Why do I do this stupid shit? Why?? _She realized that even though she was saved, she couldn't pull herself up since her wrists were tied and painfully chafing against her bonds. _I will not cry. I will NOT cry. I will NOT..._

"I don't know how you manage to get yourself in these situations." Sharon stopped her mantra in time to crane her neck up and see that her savior had caught the trailing end of the wire before it too disappeared with her off of the edge and was straining to hold it in his two hands.

_God laughs at me._ "Uh... yeah. I don't know either." She would have chanced a chuckle, but even she was too messed up to pretend that she wasn't shaken.

Irvine chanced a grin that was more like a wince in his own effort to make the situation a bit less severe. The wire that he caught already made quite a burn on his hands because it took him awhile to get some sort of grip, and that's only because he threw his body on top of the remaining wire to help give him leverage. But even that was slipping, simply because the wire was too thin to keep hold on it with his bare hands. Inch by inch, the wire slipped slowly but surely, and if that continued, then Sharon would continue her interrupted fall.

"Fuck it. Just... just drop it." Sharon choked out, trapped between screaming for him to pull her up and surrendering herself to her fate. Or maybe it was pride, she didn't know. Being on the edge of death for the second time in this whole ill-fated adventure was beginning to make chinks in her already fleeting sanity, and she half wasn't sure if she cared anymore. "Go and help the others and do a good job taking care of Gina for me, you hear?"

Irvine's answer to this was a frown, and he firmly took the ends of the wire and wrapped it around his own wrist to give him more leverage, and gave an experimental tug.

"... what the hell are you doing?"

"What does it look like I'm doing? I'm pulling you up."

"No, you can't. I have no way to help you do that, and you'd be pulling dead weight. It wouldn't last, and we'd both end up squished on the ground which is, I'm sorry to say, REALLY far down. So this is stupid, and you should stop now. What if they need you?"  
"I think they're doing fine without me, thank you. You're the only one that needs me right now. Whoa-" His grip slipped on his progress pulling up the wire, and along with the wire, a bit more of his torso was pulled over the edge.

This would be where Sharon's sanity broke. "No. No no. Stop it right now. Let it go, let me drop, pull yourself back up. Right. Now."

Another wince-smile. Glancing down at his hands, he saw the wire cut painfully into his palms, causing a steady drip of blood to run down to his wrists. "I can't really do that right now. I'm a bit tied up. And besides, what would Gina say if I let her best friend die?"  
"THIS IS NOT A GAME!!" She shrieked, feeling the wire slip more. Panic was rising in her throat like bile, and frustration at not being able to get through to Irvine that helping her up was futile spiked. "WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU!?!? IF YOU DON'T LET GO RIGHT NOW... oh my god, cut the damn wire or something..."

"No! Why the hell are you so intent on dying, anyway?"

"Why the hell are you so intent on dying WITH me??"

"Because I..." He choked. Looking down, he saw Sharon's panicked face, which was now streaked with tears. She knew the unsaid words he failed to say, and she wasn't sure why that terrified her more than her death. _How did this happen? He can't... I swear to god he can't..._

"Shut up. You don't know what you're saying, so just shut up."

Slipping more over the edge, he gave another rueful smile. He really hated seeing her cry. "You're right. I really don't know what I'm saying, or what I'm doing. But..." He took a strained breath. "I do know how I feel."

Crying more freely now, she couldn't meet his gaze anymore. "You... are such an idiot."

"Yep. But you love me for it."

To that, she didn't have a reply.

Meanwhile, Mobile 8 was putting up a decent fight, but it was coming to an end. The damage that Irvine's shot and Squall's hack job did to it was substantial, and it couldn't last that much longer. Gina was frantically reflecting spell after spell off of the group while sneaking glances around to see where Sharon landed. It terrified her more that she DIDN'T see where she landed, and it irritated her that the Mobile 8 thing was still working, albeit lagging now. _I could eradicate this thing with one big powerful spell. But I can't lest I risk losing control and catching everyone in a spell frenzy with how high my nerves are wired right now._ She could feel the panic rising in her like a tide, but along with that came the familiar feeling of untapped power which she struggled to keep both in control. Sweat dripped in torrents down her face with the mental strain, but she rushed to quell the war going on inside her. She couldn't afford to let that loose.

"NOW!" Laguna called, and Ward hauled his pole like a javelin through the air and it impaled Mobile 8 through the center and to the ground, where Kiros followed up and cut the head off with one clean swipe of his Katal. Jumping backwards, everyone watched as Mobile 8 shook violently and sputtered out a few more clouds of black smoke before losing its hover ability and clunking unceremoniously on the ground.

"That... was quite a distraction." Quistis shouldered her whip. "I never thought that would go down... and Fujin and Raijin have escaped."

"Don't really care. Where's Sharii-chan?" Gina whipped her head around frantically and caught sight of a figure leaning dangerously half off of the edge.

"She got thrown farther than we thought! Looks like the cowboy got her, though." Zell brushed himself off. "Well, I guess all we have to do is go over there and..." His face dropped when he went only one step forward and saw Irvine's legs disappear off of the edge. "Oh, shi-"

"Move." Gina almost surprised herself at the command in her own voice as she let the power that was peaking in her take control. As much as she feared what would happen, she surprised herself by remaining conscious of her actions this time around. The sorceress power ran through her like a cold torrent, but she immediately felt better after it settled. Extending her arm, she let loose a spell that shot forward as a flash of light on angel wings. In stunned shock, the group watched as the spell literally flew out and over the edge. It reappeared just moments later, wings slowly flapping to lower itself to the ground. Slowly, the wings of light folded inwards and exploded gently in a shower of feathers that shimmered and disappeared like a mirage, allowing the scenery to return to normal around them. Shielding their eyes, they all blinked rapidly as the spell dissipated, and in its place stood Irvine and Sharon, still wrapped up in the wire, but very much alive.

"What the... THAT WAS SO AWESOME!!!" Selphie shrieked, and threw herself at Gina in a huge bear hug. "YOU SAVED THEM! WHAT SPELL WAS THAT!?! TEACH ME!"

That hug jarred Gina out of her trance state, and she blinked rapidly as if she just woke up from a deep sleep. "What... SHARII-CHAN!! YOU'RE OKAY!!!" She bounced up and down despite being in Selphie's grip. _I did it. I saved her and didn't hurt anyone in the process. Maybe I CAN control this power after all, without repressing it._ She remembered many talks she had with Sharon about how it wasn't good for her to repress her feelings, and she felt that finally she was on the way to understanding what exactly that meant. It doesn't mean letting my emotions control me. _I can control them, as long as I don't deny them, as well._

Sharon grinned and shakily held up her still bound wrists. "And guess what? I kept my gun in the process, too. Hells yeah!"

Squall resisted the urge to facepalm, despite the half smile that was forming on even his lips. _Only she would come out of a near death experience proud that she has her gun._

Sharon watched silently as Irvine carefully unwound the remaining wire around her wrists. She wasn't sure if anyone else noticed, but there was an extra tenderness to the way he was handling her bonds. As soon as her wrists were free, he briefly ran his thumbs along the redness that lined the sides of her hands. She didn't know why, but she shivered and quickly played it off as putting her gun back in the holster.

Laguna lifted an eyebrow and flicked his glance between the two for a moment before speaking up. "Well, that was certainly an interesting show you gave us, Gina. I never saw a Float spell of that magnitude before... but then again, no one that I know of has casted a float spell on a target they couldn't actually see. I guess that's one of the perks of being a sorceress, huh?" He laughed to himself. "Now, I think we should be moving on before another one of those android machine things comes and tries to blow our heads off with yet another laser beam." Squall nodded his agreement, and they all started to make their way across the rubble and into Lunatic Pandora. Before they got too far, Sharon caught the edge of Irvine's arm and held him back a bit.

"Hey..." She grabbed his hands and turned them over, revealing a series of red scrapes and cuts, many of which were still bleeding. "Think you can hide this from me?"

"Well, evidently not." He waited patiently as Sharon concentrated a Cure spell over his hands, which healed the angry marks up completely. "There." She gave them a pat. "Good as new. It's not as fancy as the displays Gina puts on for us, but it did the job nonetheless."

Irvine looked at her, and it took Sharon awhile to look him in the eye. She knew that things wouldn't be the same anymore between them, and a part of her was relieved to know that the whole mission was coming to a close so she and Gina would be on their way back to GVSU. However, what made her uncomfortable now was the fact that another part of her responded to the new tenderness that she saw in his eyes when he looked at her. All of it was making her confused if she thought about it too much. Not to mention she also thought that it was all her fault, despite all of her tried and failed attempts to hook Irvine and Selphie up. She resolved that she needed to get the hell out of their universe, the sooner the better.

"Don't look at me like that. I know that near-death experiences are known for making people loopy and jumping to do things like get baptized in the name of Christ and all that good shit, but we still have a mission to complete." Sharon tried to put the old harshness and sarcastic humor back into her voice, but even that seemed to falter.

"And after that?"

"We'll... talk." _ Lord knows what about, but maybe I'll have time to pull something out of my ass. _Focusing on a point on his head to avoid looking directly into his eyes, she noticed that his cowboy hat was gone, most probably lost over the side of the makeshift cliff. "You lost it."

Irvine blinked in confusion for a second, and then felt the top of his head. "So I did. Eh, oh well."

"Oh well? How can you say 'oh well' to something that you've had for years and is as much as a trademark to you as all of my stupid little plastic bracelets?" Sharon shook her wrist to emphasize her point. "My Mom threatened multiple times to cut off my bracelets and I wouldn't have it because they might as well be surgically implanted into a main artery by now."

Laughing, he shook his head. "Awhile ago, I would have been right there with you, actually. That hat was the last gift I was given by someone who was not only my mentor, but also like the father I never had, before he left G-Garden. I cherished it and kept it close to remember him by, which of course led to my own rebellious nature that nobody could really keep in line, least of all Headmaster Martine. But now, by some stroke of luck or fate or whatever, I ran into him again." He looked off slightly into the distance. "Who would have thought it possible? So... I guess I don't really need the hat anymore, now that I think about it."

Stooping down, Sharon picked up her cowboy hat from where she threw it down before the whole battle started and brushed it off. "Well, sentimental value or not, I think you look rather naked without a hat on your head, so you get this one." She plopped it down on his head before he could protest. "The seashells around the top might look a little gay, but I really didn't think a guy would be inheriting my hat. But ya know, you look a little girly anyway, so maybe you can pull it off, I dunno."

"Oh, really?" Irvine shot back, but before Sharon could launch into another remark, he looped his arm around her waist and pulled her to him for a kiss. "Thank you, sweetheart. I'll take good care of it." He tipped the hat and gave her a wink before walking off to join the rest of the group.

Sharon blinked, realized what had happened, and screamed at his back, "I'M NOT YOUR FUCKING SWEETHEART!"


	52. Chapter 52

"Maybe it was this way... or maybe we were supposed to turn the other way..." Laguna mused to himself, not really aware that he was talking out loud. Ward shook his head, and Zell chanced a glance to Squall to see that the commander was looking quite calm. But he knew from experience that the calmer he looked, the more exasperated he actually was.

"Umm... where exactly are we going?" Selphie spoke up, looking up and around at their surroundings. They hadn't been walking far distance-wise, but everything seemed to look the same inside Lunatic Pandora. It was beautiful, but they hadn't come to appreciate the scenery. The never ending caverns of iridescent blue-green crystal all began to look the same, which made navigation quite confusing after awhile. Not to mention the person serving as their makeshift Mapquest seemed to be less and less certain of where exactly they were headed.

Laguna turned around, a half-sheepish look on his face. "Well... I figured if they have Adel, then they'd keep her at the very center of this place. I remember wandering around this place long ago, back when us three were still in the army, and I thought I remembered how to get there. But then again, it has been quite a long time and this thing was under some sort of weird construction last time I was here... so I'm guessing a lot now, too."

Squall pressed his index finger to his forehead. _Why the hell are we following you, then? But I guess you're better than nothing, considering the rest of us would be just as lost. _Looking around himself, he spotted a ladder halfway around a bend. "I don't think we've taken that route yet. Let's try it and see where it takes us."

Climbing up, the group trooped around a new level of Lunatic Pandora that looked quite similar to the area they just left, with the only difference being that nestled in an alcove was a long tunnel that led to... yet another part of the large maze of a cave.

"This really pisses me off." Sharon mumbled. "Are we there yet?"

Squall shot her a look that clearly told her to not start any crap right now. The whole group's nerves were on edge, anticipating the meeting with Adel and most probably Seifer and his posse. Humor was probably needed in order to calm them down, but nobody was really sure if they were going to be able to appreciate it. It was too close to D-time, and no one really knew what was going to happen if their plan succeeded, let alone if it didn't.

Gina herself didn't know what to expect. Slipping back into her own mind from time to time, she had come to some startling conclusions that she was afraid to voice, even to Sharon. She was afraid that she'd jinx the entire mission. She thought about the conversation that she and Sharon had on the Ragnarok about split worlds and timelines. Despite the whole theory giving her a headache when she first thought about it, she had to admit that it did make sense, even if it did turn out to be a bunch of hogwash. But it scared her when she realized that instead of knowing what would happen next in the FFVIII universe, they had just been shaping it the way they knew it should go. Someone could argue and say that it was basically the same thing and just a different way of saying it, but it still scared Gina all to hell when she thought about the implications of that.

Before, it made both she and Sharon feel better to know that they were fixing their blunder into their world by helping them achieve the "ending of the game". But now she was coming to accept that they really couldn't fix it, no matter what they thought they were doing. They didn't know for sure what was going to happen next, they couldn't; it was no longer the game that they could be playing rather than actually living some messed up deviation of it. _This could actually make a good fanfiction... but not like I'll be writing any for a long time if I survive this. _The if in her last thought sent a spike of dread down her spine, for it was the first time that she had ever acknowledged the fact that she was not guaranteed to survive any of this. Sure, she had done a great job of staying alive so far, but now she was starting to associate it with fool's luck.

"G-fuu." Gina snapped out of her daze to realize that they had come quite a ways and not even had noticed it. She also failed to realize that she had been gradually slowing down her pace to fall farther and farther behind, and Sharon had been looking at her suspiciously most probably ever since she lapsed into her own world.

"Sorry, Sharii-chan. I'm just thinking too much."

"Obviously. What's the matter?" She started to slow down a bit too, just in case it turned out to be something the rest of the group didn't need to hear.

Shaking her head, Gina resumed her normal pace, not really wanting to attract too much attention. "It's not really important. Okay, well..." She corrected herself after Sharon shot her a reproving look. "I guess I'm just worried. I don't know what to expect. I don't know if I'm strong enough to handle all of this that is going to happen. We could mess up, ya know..."

"Stop it. We're NOT messing up. Not after coming this far. It's like... Disc 4 is just around the corner... well, literally, I guess... and we have no time to corrupt the game file. Well, not any more than it already has been..." Glancing down at Gina's pained expression, she sighed. "Alright, so I admit, that was a really horrible analogy I made and I need to be shot for it, but you get what I'm saying, don't you? Let's not give up. We've got to help them finish this, and we've got to get home."

Gina nodded, and grabbed her best friend's hand. "You're right... I guess I'm just freaking myself out. We've got to finish this." She paused and then eyeballed her with a smirk. "So... about you and Irvine..."

"NOT the time." Sharon pulled her hand away, a bit of color rising to her cheeks. "Talk about not thinking too much; that's the last thing I want to think about right now. I'd rather think of what's in front of us right now, actually."

Looking up, Gina realized that they had come to a small hall that was dimly lit, making the maroons and deep purples adorning the alcoves and walls seem all the more vibrant yet dark. Directly at the center towards the back was an elevated platform where the self-proclaimed knight himself stood, barking orders to someone behind him. Coming more into what little light there was, Raijin was seen holding the semi-struggling Ellone, with Fujin beside him.

Laguna started when he caught sight of this. "Ellone!"

Looking up, her eyes showed a spark of hope, and a bright smile lit her face, contrasting to her dire situation. "Laguna! Squall!"

Seifer rolled his eyes and turned around lazily, facing everyone as if he had better things to do with his time. "What a surprise." He drawled sarcastically, then looked back at his friends. "Looks like we got company. Show 'em your hospitality."

Raijin and Fujin hesitated, and exchanged glances behind Ellone's back. Clearing his throat nervously, Raijin meekly spoke up. "Hey... Seifer? Sorry, but... we've had enough, ya know..."

Seifer blinked and squinted at him. "Say what?"

Fujin flicked her chin over towards where everyone else was standing, looking at Ellone as she did so. "GO."

Glancing uncertainly at what she was so sure were her captors, she eyeballed Seifer warily before stepping backwards away from the three and moving down the stairs, where she broke out into a full run right into Laguna's arms.

"Hyne, I was so scared... I was afraid that you wouldn't make it on time, that nobody knew where I was, and that they would..." She whispered into Laguna's shirt, clinging to it for dear life.

"Shh... it's okay. We're here, thanks to Squall and his crew." Laguna patted her head reassuringly. "You still have one more thing to do for us though, but I'll tell you when it's time. Then... then everything will be fine. You have my word."

Seifer looked in disgust at this reunion, and rolled his neck in exasperation. "Hey, hey... Come on, people."

"We're quittin', ya know?" Raijin continued, his voice more sure this time. "Don't know what's right anymore, ya know?"

"Exactly my thoughts." Seifer growled, glaring at his two companions. "I thought we were a posse."

"POSSE." Fujin barked, then paused for a moment and seemed to gather her resolve. "We are. We always will be." Everyone that knew Fujin all but passed out at her ability to speak in a normal voice. Despite being her professor, Quistis had figured she had some sort of impediment that denied her the ability to speak in nothing but short fragments, so she didn't call on her in class much unless she really needed to. Even Seifer was surprised, because even though he knew that Fujin could talk normally if she wanted to, he'd only witnessed her do this once, and it was only after the event in which she lost her left eye. Her actual voice was clear, controlled and strangely melodious, which was such a stark contrast to her preferred methods of communication.

"Whatever it takes to fulfill your dreams, we're willing to do." She continued. "But... you're being manipulated, Seifer. You've lost yourself and your dream. You're just eating out of someone's hand. We want the old you back!" At this point, her voice wavered as if she was on the verge of tears, despite her eye being dry and determined. "But since we can't get through to you, all we have now to rely on is Squall. It's sad... sad that we only have Squall to rely on..." She shook her head and regained her composure. "Seifer! Are you still gonna keep going?"

"Damn, she told him, alright. Respect points issued. I really feel bad for hating on her all this time, now." Sharon said in awe, and saw out of the corner of her eye how Zell was unsuccessfully trying to keep his mouth closed.

Seifer switched his gaze from both Fujin and Raijin repeatedly, before finally lifting his Hyperion. "Raijin, Fujin! It's been fun!"

Fujin gave him a final gaze that was something like disappointment and pity, before turning her back and walking off, Raijin trailing after her. No one stopped them or asked them to stick around for the final battle, despite their allegiances being clear. They'd done their part, and for them, the battle was over.

Squall looked up at the lone figure of Seifer. _ Despite my tendencies to be distant and cold... I realize now that I've never been without friends. It took me awhile to get over myself enough to be grateful for that fact. Now, I can't help but feel sorry for him. My rival and a complete dick he may be, but no one deserves to be alone... not like this, even if it was the right thing for them to do. _"Are you going to continue with this knight thing?"

Seifer balked at the underlying compassion in Squall's voice. _Like hell I'll take pity from Puberty Boy. _"The knight has retired. I guess you could call me a young revolutionary." He grinned sardonically and seemed to check his reflection unconcernedly in the edge of his gunblade.

"But what do you think you're doing?"

"I THINK... that I'm sick and tired of your questions, Puberty Boy." He jumped down from the platform and pointed the tip of his gunblade in Squall's direction, cocking his free hand to beckon him forward. "I think it's time for that rematch."

Memories resurfaced of a time and a place that seemed too far away, of he and Seifer battling it out on GVSU snow-covered grass during that Renaissance Festival. Growling low despite himself, Squall gripped his own gunblade firmly and charged at his rival, half hoping that in the heat of battle he'd be able to reason with him without things going too far.

Everyone watched as the battle commenced, gunblade edges clashing hard enough against each other to leave sparks that made Gina think of old Star Wars battles. She really hoped that no serious injuries happened this time about to either of them, because she didn't want them having regrets when everything was all said and done.

Coming together in a deadlock, Seifer seemed to tower over Squall, taking full advantage of the 7-inch height difference between them. "I've always gotta be doing somethin' BIG!" He proclaimed, a hint of madness creeping into his emerald eyes. "I don't wanna stop. I'm gonna keep running! I've come this far... I'm gonna make it to the end, to the goal! There's no WAY I'm sharing it with you!"

"What kind of messed up goal are you aiming for?" Squall regained some ground, struggling with the effort of it. "You've chased away your friends, you got yourself caught up in something much bigger than you. And now you're going to ignore the one chance you have to make all of this right because you're too busy on one of your stupid ego trips that always lead to your downfall! Just like Dollet."

Seifer's eye twitched, and in a surge of strength and anger, forcefully shoved Squall to the ground, breaking their deadlock. Before Squall could retaliate, he found the point of the Hyperion level with his right eye, and he glared defiantly up at Seifer as if to dare him to do something drastic.

"Shove it. You wouldn't fucking know. Mr. Goody-Two-Shoes. You make me sick." He paced a circle around the fallen Squall, keeping his gunblade level at his head. "If you aren't too GF gorged to remember, you were always the favorite of Matron. No matter what, little Squall could do no wrong, despite him getting into things here and there. Oh, but when I try to get a bit of attention? Hyne forbid I actually get some APPROVAL. When 'Sis' left, it's all anyone could ever talk about. 'Boo-hoo, Squall's so upset. We should do something to cheer him up.' It made me wonder how much people cared about the fact that Ellone was gone, or was it more tragic that Squally-poo couldn't pick his undies out of his ass anymore because he couldn't live without his Sis telling him how to do it."

"That's not true! We all missed Sis!" Zell blurted out, his hands curled into fists. "And Matron cared about all of us, not just Squall! How can you say crap like that and actually make yourself believe that it's true?!"

Without looking back, Seifer smirked. "I don't recall giving you permission to speak, Chicken Wuss. I'm in the middle of a conversation, if you hadn't noticed." Quistis looked sharply at Zell, ready to make sure he didn't jump down Seifer's throat, but he kept his cool and simply glared daggers at the back of his head.

"Talking about 'chasing away your friends', I'm surprised you still HAVE any with how disgustingly emo and aloof you are." Seifer all but spat, coming around to face Squall again. "But I guess that must be your charm, which was probably the only thing you inherited from your childhood days. How the hell can you talk to me about MY friends ditching me when you're perfectly content to ignore all the love and admiration you have for apparently just EXISTING? Oh shit! Look at that; Squall's commander of his VERY OWN GARDEN! And at no extra cost, you get your very own Headmaster Cid personal ass-kisser! He even got the reluctant favor of the hard-to-win Fujin and Raijin! Oh, but you don't see SHIT, because you're too caught up in your own mind and its insignificant little problems to notice. You're so blind that you couldn't even see that the hottest professor Balamb Garden has to offer would all but strip down naked in front of you and beg for you to take her!"

Squall didn't have to avert his gaze to know that Quistis was most probably beet red and staring incredulously at Seifer for that lude comment.

"Or I'll give you one better; Rinoa. So you obviously don't go for the naughty librarian type, so maybe you'll go for the innocent, sometimes annoyingly perky raven-haired princess? OH, but Squall throws everyone a loop again! He doesn't heed either of them!" Seifer turned his gaze towards Gina. "Maybe he's got a little jungle fever? Or maybe he doesn't go for girls at all and he and Chicken Wuss have a better relationship than we think..."

"WHAT THE HELL!?!?" All of the control Zell had from the last comment snapped, and he literally jumped to rip Seifer's head clean from his neck, if both Quistis and Irvine didn't grab his arms and hold him back.

"Seifer, this has gone too far." Selphie pleaded. "Stop all of this. Leave Squall alone."

"'Leave Squall alone'." Seifer whined degradingly. "See what I'm talking about? It really should be me you're concerned about right now, seeing as though it's Puberty Boy on the ground and I'm the one with something very sharp and pointy aimed at his head. But even now, I suppose I shouldn't be surprised. But not to worry; I'm gonna end it all. For the sake of all of your admirers, I'll make it painless for you, Squall. But I don't guarantee it won't be bloody." He lifted his Hyperion. "Any last words, Puberty Boy?"

Squall's gaze never left Seifer, for the exception of when he circled behind him to where he couldn't see. But he was no longer staring in hatred at his rival; instead, he had all the time to let this unexpected knowledge sink into his mind where he could process it. He didn't see a person who had been making his life hell since he was almost too small to properly remember, he didn't see the jerk that threw snow in his eyes and scarred his face permanently. He didn't see a rival. He saw a confused and heavily manipulated boy who was too blinded by all of the hurt he buried away over the years to know any better. And worst of all; Squall felt it was all his fault, for being so helplessly self-absorbed to see things as how they were. _All of this time, I thought it was for the better that people saw me as cold and uncaring. I thought I was protecting them, but all I was really doing was protecting myself. I... I was so selfish. And now..._

"I'm sorry, Seifer." He finally said. "I was... maybe I still am... blind. It's too late to undo the mess I've made of not only my life, but all the others I've affected." Squall chanced a glance back at Quistis, whose face was an unreadable mask. "But it's not too late for you to undo what you've done. And if you do that... you'll certainly have a victory I can't even hope of sharing."

Seifer gazed down at him, his eyes contemplative and probing, as if to make sure Squall wasn't fucking with him. Squall let him do this rather calmly, knowing that he himself had given that exact same assessing look to multiple people in many different situations, trying to find the dagger that would undoubtedly stab him in his back, that would make him feel the pain he had been running from since Ellone left the orphanage all those years ago.

"Isn't that sweet. Commander Squall "Puberty Boy" Leonhart actually humbled himself in front of me. Fujin gives a lecture, and Squall apologizes. This MUST be a day for the record books. But, I'm sorry to say..." A satisfactory glint shone in Seifer's eyes. "That it's too late for apologies."

And the blade of the dark Hyperion came down.

Squall was perfectly ready to have his head roll across Lunatic Pandora's floor seconds later, but before his eyes Seifer was thrown backwards quite violently to collide with the wall opposite of where he was once standing. Turning dumbfounded, he saw Gina lower her arm almost casually.

"That's the second time he fell for that." Gina stated.

Zell rushed forward and grabbed Squall's arm, hoisting him up almost effortlessly. "DUDE! YOU WOULD'VE LET THAT PIECE OF SHIT BEHEAD YOU?!?!"

_I think I deserve to lose my head right now._ Squall just blinked at him in shock, still not fully comprehending what was going down.

"Let him go, man." Irvine coaxed. "He's been through a lot, and we still got more to go. Sorry, Squall. He's been pissed since he couldn't ream Seifer a new one, but even he has to admit that it was your battle this time around." He looked pointedly at the heated blonde as if to make him agree, and Zell mumbled an apology and released Squall's arm.

Squall met Quistis' gaze, and he could see the young professor was trying to hold it together, and for all intensive purposes was doing a good job. But he knew that Seifer's comments shook her up quite badly, and he also knew it was because of the truth in them. Seifer not only dug up demons from his own past, but demons from other people's, as well. But that day was not the time and the place to settle old qualms. They still had a mission to complete.

"So..." Sharon piped slowly. "About this Adel bitch..."

This helped bring Squall back to the present, and he straightened up. "Right. We need to find where they're keeping her body."

"Ellone says she knows where." Laguna spoke up. "She'll lead the way."

"Good. Let's head out, then." Glancing back at Seifer's prone form one last time, he followed Ellone's tentative lead of the group back out the way they came in. _I'm sorry, Seifer. I truly am. You gave me a wake up call, one that I desperately needed. If we both get out of this fiasco in one piece... I hope one day we can actually be friends._

Moments later, they traveled down a long and elaborate suspended hallway to come to another room, one that was circular and much smaller than the one they came from. It gave everyone a sense of odd vertigo if they stared at their surroundings too long, so they focused on the encased figure of Adel where all of the circular ends of the room seemed to meet. The substance she was in seemed to resonate faintly, but there was no movement from the statuesque figure inside. Gina caught her breath and stood very near the entrance, not wanting to get closer. It was the first time she was in the presence of another sorceress while being completely conscious of the power within her, and it almost horrified her to know that she could feel the power that was both drawing her in and repelling her.

"She is... very tall." Selphie forced out, looking up at her figure apprehensively.

"Yeah, tell me about it." Laguna agreed. "If I wasn't told that she was a sorceress, I would swear up and down she's a man." He laughed. "Glad I didn't give voice to my thoughts to her face back then..."

Irvine glanced at him. "You MET her?"

"Yeah, I was around during that war, remember? Didn't plan on it, believe me, but I made the best of it. But I also didn't plan on being President of Esthar after that, either." He slipped into a faraway state of mind. "Man, I should tell you guys about that..."

"Not NOW, Laguna." Kiros reminded him. "We have to deal with Adel and get this show on the road."

"It's BEEN on the road, believe me." Sharon assured, stepping forward to examine the sorceress. "So... now we kill her, right?"

"That's it?" Selphie scratched her head. "That seems horribly simple, compared to all that we've been through thus far."

"Hey man, I welcome simplicity at this point. The hard part will come after Time Compression starts, anyway. SO..." Sharon turned around. "Are we ready for this, fol-"

Everyone turned to follow her gaze to the doorway where Gina was still standing, albeit with the edge of a gunblade right beneath her chin.

"Oh HELL NO..." Zell started, but Squall put his arm out.

"No. We don't know what he might do to Gina if we react brashly." As much as Squall wanted to jump himself, he knew it wouldn't be worth it if Seifer slit Gina's throat before he got even close to where they were standing.

"You know, Squall..." Seifer started, moving from the doorway more into the room, keeping his captive hostage. "You talked about fixing past mistakes. I find that, ironically, even that little victory has been denied." He inched a large perimeter around the group that was eyeballing him warily. "What exactly is there to fix? I'm a traitor to Balamb Garden. I helped Sorceress Edea take over Galbadia Garden, so it's not like they'll greet me warmly there, either. By this time, the entire globe probably knows where I stand, so it's too late for me to turn back, now."

"Seifer..." Ellone found her voice. "Please... haven't you done enough?"

Looking at her while making his way closer to Adel, he grinned. "Actually, 'Sis', there's one thing left I need to do. And believe me, it WILL be great. For it is Ultimecia's wish for the sorceresses to be as one."

"UH, NO! FUCK HER, AND THE HORSE SHE RODE IN ON!" Sharon shouted, reaching for her gun. She really didn't want to, but if he did something stupid then she'd be forced to put a bullet in his head and not regret it.

Ignoring her, he called to Squall. "Gina and Adel! The sorceresses as one. Watch closely, Squall!"

And he shoved Gina forcefully in Adel's direction.


	53. Chapter 53

**A/N:** Wow, I'm loving myself these days. I belted out not one, not two, but THREE chapters in ONE WEEK! My god... I must be rushing up to make up for lost time, here. I guess I didn't realize how close I was to finally finishing this thing. It's almost sad, ya know?

Well... there's always the sequel Cacophonia, amirite!?!?

**

* * *

**

Gina couldn't move.

Oh, she wanted to, of course. Who WOULDN'T want to move away from what looked like a 7-foot tall monster encased in glowing amber? But her brain was jammed, and she could only stare in horror. The power she felt when she entered the room was pulsing stronger now, and her body felt compelled forward even more. The only thing stopping her from doing so was her own will to keep her in one place, but she didn't have any more to make her move backwards. _And I'm supposed to inherit this? How can I if I can't even FIGHT it? _She FELT how powerful Adel must have been in her prime, and it scared her how great it was compared to the power she inherited from Edea.

And then her arm exploded in white-hot pain.

Snapping her head down, Gina's eyes grew even wider when she realized that Adel had stretched one very long arm out of the substance she thought was solid to grab her own. Evidently the stasis she was put in to keep her on the moon was wearing off, and Adel was finally beginning to awaken. Faintly aware that the sorceress was pulling herself inch by inch out of the gooey glowing material that was her tomb for many years, Gina couldn't concentrate on anything else besides the fact that the white arm with the impossibly long black fingernails was gripping her own, and the connection was making her dizzy. _It's burning... my god, my arm is on fire... can't stop the pain... can't move..._

While everyone was busy gawking at the scene in front of them, Seifer made his exit. He was no longer Ultimecia's puppet, compared to popular belief; he broke that bond the moment Edea transferred her powers and Ultimecia's control in the present temporarily vanished. He wasn't a revolutionary anymore, either; he did the last thing he had to do, and he didn't care to see the outcome. He really didn't know WHAT he cared about anymore... and he was sure it didn't matter.

Sharon rushed frantically towards Gina and began tugging her away from Adel. "YOU CAN'T HAVE HER!! LET HER GO!!" Each of her tugs didn't do much to free her best friend, but did an awesome job of helping Adel more and more out of her gooey tomb. Looking up in horror, Sharon realized that Adel's eyes were now open, and her mouth was stretched open in a very wide and very vicious grin. With all of the paint that covered the sorceress' face, she was reminded of a circus clown from hell, and she knew that her face would be added onto the long list of things that could make her shit her pants.

"Squall!" Laguna shouted to the commander, who seemed to be under the same trance everyone else was in. "Knight's honor!"

He wasn't sure if it was Laguna's voice that did it or his own body was finally reacting to the brain pulses he was sending, but he leapt into action. As soon as Adel's torso had emerged, he jumped forward and rammed the point of his gunblade clean through her stomach, the very tip of the blade protruding through her back.

Finally noticing that there were other people in the room besides her and the other sorceress, Adel blinked in shock and moved her head down so she could see just what stabbed her in the midsection so suddenly.

"You little _flea_..." She hissed, her unusually long canines completely visible in her grimace.

Squall looked up to her gaze and absolutely refused to be intimidated despite the circumstances. "Go back to the hell you came from, Adel." With that, he forcibly wrenched the gunblade in a half circle quickly before yanking his weapon free, taking along quite a bit of blood and other disgusting things that were meant to stay inside the body. Squall took no notice of that, however, and turned his attention towards Gina.

Gina blinked slowly and realized how terrified she was, but she had to do it. _For the sake of getting home. For everyone. For Squall. _"I accept."

And her mind simultaneously exploded.

Sharon clamped her hands to her ears in horror at the scream that was coming forth from her best friend's mouth. She had never heard Gina scream before, not the kind of scream that caused her heart to jar painfully and want to leap out of her chest. "GINA!!! GINA!!!"

Gina couldn't hear anything. She wasn't even quite aware of where she was at that point in time. Nothing could have prepared her for the rush of power she had just accepted. When she took over Edea's power, it knocked her out, but she couldn't remember it being anything like this. She felt like someone took her body and threw it into the hottest fire in the world, and nothing could make the pain stop, since it wasn't physical. It peaked in her again and again, causing her to throw her body from side to side erratically.

"WHAT THE HELL IS IT DOING TO HER?!" Zell yelled, as a supernatural force echoed the screams. "CAN'T WE STOP IT? IT'S DRIVING HER INSANE!"

"We can't!" Laguna answered, watching as the red streaks in Gina's hair bleached out to a brilliant white. "She has to win this battle herself, to MAKE the power obey her!"

Cracks were forming in the walls and the ceiling of the small circular room, tracing hairline fractures in intricate patterns around them. Sharon risked uncovering her ears and grasped Gina's shoulders and shook her. "G-FUU!! IT'S ME, SHARII-CH..." Her voice caught in her throat.

Gina's eyes had been squeezed shut during this whole ideal, and they snapped open in a panic, looking aimlessly around as if she was blind. But what scared Sharon most was that the color of Gina's eyes had changed from the warm chocolate brown to a brilliant hazel, contrasting starkly with her dark skin color. Faint swirls of amber danced in them as Gina began to hyperventilate, twitching ever so slightly.

"SeeD..." She croaked out, staggering on her feet. "Accursed... SeeD..." The amber in her eyes started to darken slowly to clouds of green.

"Shit!" Irvine swore, spinning to face Laguna and Ellone. "She can't fight both Adel's power AND Ultimecia's influence at once!"

"Ellone! Now's your chance! Send them both back to the past, to Adel!" Laguna ordered.

Hesitating briefly, Ellone took a shaky breath and reached out in her own mind to feel for Gina's consciousness. She wasn't sure if she could do it, since she originally only did this with people she was familiar with, so she knew their auras. Inwardly she reeled back when she found her target, struggling between the power threatening to overwhelm her and Ultimecia's fearful claws digging into her mind. _Oh, it is going to be difficult to pull her back... _Pushing firmly with her mind, she ejected both Gina's consciousness and Ultimecia's to a time in the past, where she nestled them both firmly into Adel's consciousness.

Gina's body immediately crumbled, her eyes going out like a light. Sharon struggled to hold her and finally succeeded in slowly lowering her body to the ground where she crouched with it, hugging her arms protectively around her friend's shoulders.

"Umm... now what?" Selphie nervously tittered, chewing on a fingernail.

"Now Ellone gets Gina back." Laguna replied, laying a reassuring hand on Ellone's shoulder. "I know you can do it."

Using Laguna's support as her strength, she reached out again for the spot in the past where she sent Gina. Finding it, she felt her consciousness and gave the gentle tug it needed to return to her body where it belonged. But she met resistance, and frowned. _What is this? _Probing around a bit deeper, she realized that since Gina was still in the struggle with the new power she inherited, her consciousness was getting mixed with Adel's and also fading into Ultimecia's control. _Hyne... what have we done? _Controlling her fear, she moved a bit and felt the ominous presence of Ultimecia. Grabbing hold, she used more force than she ever used before and ripped her free from Gina's mind, thrusting her into Adel's. Quickly she pulled Gina back to the present, nestling her safe in her own body. She fell to her knees with the effort as soon as she was sure she hadn't left pieces of Gina in the past and not inadvertently brought pieces of Adel into the present.

Gina gasped deeply as if she had been underwater and lurched, her eyes wide open yet still that unnatural hazel color. "Ah..."

"She's still... Squall!" Quistis belted out. "Do something! We can't lose her to this!"

For once entirely unconcerned about the fact that once again, everyone was looking to him to fix something or another, Squall dropped his gunblade and knelt down in front of Gina. "Gina..." He took her hand in his own. "It's Squall. Listen to me; fight it. We need you. Come back to your friends." _Come back to me._

As if in response to his unvoiced command, Gina looked in complete recognition of the person in front of her. "Squall." The bright hazel in her eyes dimmed, and they returned to their original color. The red in her hair gradually returned, and she blinked a couple of times, just noticing that her eyes were really dry.

"Good job, Sir Squall." Sharon said, staring at Squall with a knowing and amused gaze. Eyeballing her cautiously, Squall got to his feet and helped Gina up, still holding her hand. Sharon made it even more obvious by switching her stare pointedly at their joined hands and he released it, glaring at Sharon briefly before going to retrieve his gunblade.

"GINA!!" Zell glomped her suddenly, almost knocking her off balance. "You okay now? We were freaking out over here!"

She laughed, actually oddly lighthearted despite all the hell she just went through. "Yeah, I'm fine. For a minute there I wasn't sure, though... Adel's power is immense..." Even though she was completely herself, she could feel the new power brimming in her, controlled yet... not, at the same time. She knew it was because that Squall was her knight that she was able to pull through, otherwise... well, she didn't want to really think about the consequences of what could have happened. She was just glad that they didn't.

But that didn't stop her from being scared when the very roots of the floor seemed to lurch.

"Did you feel that?" Sharon asked, even though she didn't need to.

"Ultimecia's inside Adel... just like she wanted to be in the first place." Laguna spoke up, looking to Kiros and Ward who nodded. "Okay, folks! This is it! Time compression is beginning! Remember what I said; Love, friendship, and courage! Show 'em what you got!"

When the floor lurched again, strange ripples appeared through the walls, the ceiling... even the _air_ seemed to move as though everything was liquid. Colors seemed to blend into one another, then fade altogether into new colors that seemed to at once form different walls, different air - that at once moved back into the place they knew to be inside Lunatic Pandora.

"Hyne... I hope I'm not gonna be sick." Zell glanced around at the phenomena, turning slightly green.

"Squall!" Ellone called, her voice seeming far too distant from the place she was standing next to Laguna. "I believe in you! Come back safely!"

"All of you, do your best! And come on back so we can have the party of the century!" Laguna gave a whoop.

"Okay, now it's time for us to focus on that place we decided on! We can't get lost in the time compression!" Quistis reminded them all, steeling herself against the lurches and ripples that were becoming more frequent.

"To Matron's house!" Selphie jumped. "Everyone ready?"

Squall was half listening, because he was staring through the ripples in time and space to meet Laguna's gaze. He really didn't know why, but he couldn't stop himself from looking at the man he'd personally seen - thanks to Ellone - bumble through much of his life to somehow end up as the President of Esthar. Maybe because whenever he did, he found Laguna looking right back at him. This time, as the world changed around him, Squall wasn't sure if he was gazing at him with tears in his still unfailingly cheerful eyes or if it was because of all the distortions going on. Something inside of him tugged at this, and he couldn't understand why, although a part of him felt that he already knew, even if he couldn't comprehend it.

"Squall! C'mon dude, you're fading!" Zell's voice carried impossibly slow, as if time itself was slowing down. Squall watched as Laguna gave him a thumbs up, his trademark happy-go-lucky grin spreading across his face.

"...Dad..." Before he could finish, the floor dropped from underneath his feet, and he found himself falling out of one reality and into the next, gliding impossibly through air. Even though he realized he was falling, it felt like he wasn't moving at all at the same time, despite the currents of air rushing up and around him. Squall watched as time passed around him. He caught glimpses of the past, pieces of Adel's reign. He witnessed people and places he knew as his own present as well, mixed in with other places and things he'd never seen before. Everything was blurring impossibly fast, flashing before his eyes to the point he was getting dizzy. Closing his eyes against it all, he focused himself on the orphanage as he remembered it, and also being reunited with his friends. _I hope this actually works... _Gradually, his descent slowed, and the air around him stilled.

When he chanced looking around, he realized that he was standing on the stone steps outside of Edea's house. He could hear the sea crashing on the shore behind the house, and smell the salt in the air. He saw the house not as the debilitated mess as it was in his time, but as how it was when all of them were small. He reached forward and opened the door into the main room, faintly aware that his footsteps weren't echoing like they should be. _That's right... I'm trapped between time..._

As he thought this, he caught faint shimmers of figures running through the house. A little girl with brown hair pulled back into a ponytail ran from one room into the next, giggling with a sparkler in her hands. Squall blinked, and he saw another figure sitting in a chair, aimlessly playing with a toy car of sorts. The boy had a messy shock of brown hair and was wearing a bright yellow sweater with a black stripe going horizontally across the front. As Squall rounded the chair to get more of a frontal view of the boy, a small hand reached up and snatched the toy from his grip.

"Finders keepers!" Another little boy with short blonde hair exclaimed, waving his prize.

"Not fair! Give it back!" The brown-haired boy jumped down from the chair and raced at him. "Give it back, Seifer!"

Frozen in his place, Squall could only watch as his past self and his rival's ran in circles around the room, and was only faintly surprised when they ran right through him to other parts of the house, their clambering echoing away. _This has got to be the weirdest thing I have ever experienced. _Remembering his purpose, he focused on finding his friends and opened the back door that led down to the sea. As he walked, he noticed his surroundings fading as time mixed again, and the orphanage once again fell into disrepair. The shore changed as well, becoming spotted with fallen debris, broken and discarded weapons, and many other things that Squall refused to linger his thoughts on.

_What in the hell... many wars have gone on over the years, way beyond our time... generations of SeeDs... but why?_

"Squall!" He blinked and looked to his right, where everyone else was gathered. He wasn't exactly sure whether or not they had always been there waiting for him, or if he was waiting for them. He supposed it didn't matter.

"Ultimecia's reign." He started when they all joined him, following his gaze out to sea. "We have to end it now."

Anchored on a very large chain that seemed to stretch into infinity, was an impossibly large and ominous looking castle. It wasn't floating on the sea, even though that too would have been just as equally impossible. Instead, the massive abode hung in midair, out of reach of time itself.

"Think we can call a cab?" Sharon joked.

"This is beyond fucked up to even think about that right now," Irvine answered, gazing up at their next destination with a shiver. "I can't believe anyone would even WANT to live in a place like that."

Gina snorted. "Well, I can't believe anyone would even want to compress time and space together, either. I suppose it's fitting."

_Really. _ "Well... let's get started." Squall walked over to the chain and started to climb it steadily.

"What the fuck hell?" Sharon sputtered. "That is totally not safe. No way am I climbing up that damn thing."

"I know, I know, I don't like it either, Sharii-chan." Gina said, taking her friend's arm. "But it's the only way up there. To end this. To go home." Sharon met Gina's gaze, and then stared uncertainly at the task waiting for her.

"Don't worry too much about it." Zell said as he walked by and started to follow Squall up his tedious path to the castle. "At least it's above water."

"BUT I CAN'T SWIM!!" Sharon pleaded, but begrudgingly got in line to climb the chain. "If I fall, G-fuu, will you have another one of those awesome winged float spell thingies to save me before I drown?"

"Don't worry, Sharii-chan. I'll save you." Gina just hoped she wouldn't have to use any of her sorceress powers anymore to do it. It took her awhile to get up the confidence and the control to use her old powers, and she barely survived inheriting Adel's power on top of that. She shivered when she remembered the horrible feeling of her mind wanting to rip into thousands of little pieces. _At least before I blacked out when I lost control._ She didn't want to use that power ever again, but she knew she had to in order to attempt getting the portal back to GVSU. Gina was beginning to understand why sorceresses were feared, and why so many went batshit. _It's way too much power for a human being to control. _She pondered this the entire time they made their way up slowly but surely until they finally came to the large stone steps of the castle.

"Hey... question." Gina started thoughtfully. "I know this is probably not the best time to be asking something like this but... I think it might bug me for awhile until I get it straight in my head, and if we're going into the final battle pretty soon, I don't want to be distracted."

Squall leaned up against one of the stone pillars near the stairs in his usual position. "Good call. Shoot."

She cleared her throat. "Well... what exactly are the theories behind the origins of sorceresses again? I mean, I know we went over them briefly in your class, professor," Gina said quickly, not wanting to make Quistis think she wasn't paying attention. "But I don't think I got a clear idea of what really to expect. I don't think anyone anticipated us going up against something like this, let alone the fact that by some stroke of luck, I ended up being one myself."

Quistis thought for a moment before speaking. "There are two main theories today to help explain the sorceress phenomenon. One is the spiritual or religious belief that all sorceresses are the descendants of Hyne, the all-powerful god that gave this planet life, granted us Guardian Forces, and allowed us to draw on the earth's power in the form of the spells we are trained to use today. It is said that whenever a sorceress makes an appearance, that she is Hyne's chosen to wield powers beyond our understanding to cleanse the world."

Irvine snorted. "You make it sound like it was a GOOD thing that every sorceress in the past managed to be a raving lunatic, an imposing tyrant, or both."

"Well, to many religious sects scattered around the world, this WAS a good thing." The professor explained. "The number isn't great, but it still exists. There are many out there that believe that the world that we live in just becomes more and more corrupt as the years go by, and they wait anxiously for the next sorceress to help guide us all back to the way Hyne intended us to live. The rate in which new sorceresses appear have drastically increased according to records, which is why this land hasn't seen peace in many years. The multiple deaths and catastrophes that occur as a result of this is seen religiously as the wicked undergoing judgment, and our own inability to succumb appropriately to Hyne's will."

"That... is some bullshit." Sharon said bluntly. _ I guess religious fanatics exist no matter what world you live in. _"What's the second theory?"

"The scientific one, which isn't very popular due to the limited knowledge and resources needed to research it. The only expert on this theory is Dr. Odine, so outside the technologically advanced city of Esthar few know of it or acknowledge it. The book Gina mentioned awhile ago that she read, _Sorceress Sanctum_, is one of the few books published with information regarding this theory." Quistis nodded in Gina's direction. "This deals heavily with the scientific fact that energy cannot be created or destroyed, only transferred. Our bodies each have a unique molecular structure that is specific only to the individual, much like fingerprints. Research has discovered that a particular molecular anomaly that bypasses all barriers of genealogy and is present in a few individuals that can be triggered to form what is called the Sorceress Virus. Without getting too technical, this so-called virus is only found in females, and can be sparked only under conditions of extreme mental stress or when someone else with the full blown virus causes a spark and a transfer of energy to another female who would have the dormant virus and therefore be susceptible."

Zell squinted a bit while waiting for his brain to stop spinning. "So... which one is true? The religious one or the scientific one?"

Quistis sighed and shrugged. "That's the thing; no one really knows for sure. That's why they are mere theories. There are too many unexplained things on both ends of thought to constitute one theory winning over the other to become absolute truth. From experience, we know that there can technically only be one active sorceress at any present time. This is a part of the religious theory. If there are two sorceresses, one exists only to transfer her power to another, which coincides with the scientific theory. It's too complicated, and not too many people are willing to sit down and delve into the mysteries of the unknown for an undetermined amount of time to sort it out."

"Why didn't we learn this in school?" Selphie scratched her head. "I'm sure this would've been interesting... and it could've been a great way to have a lot of people working to figure it out!"

"I agree... but you have to understand that the entire sorceress deal is a touchy subject for multiple reasons." Quistis paced briefly. "There are people that don't care to know about the complexities of the theories surrounding a sorceress and her existence in this world; they just want to live a life of peace. There are people that grow up with religious beliefs that could clash hideously with the education they are given, and there are even more who live only to wring a sorceress' neck for all of the pain and destruction they bring. As educators, we have the power to influence our students greatly, so we must take an even greater care to remain neutral in our teachings. As SeeDs, that balance is even more precarious, since our general purpose is to help those in need. We can't choose NOT to help those people, even in the face of an evil sorceress."

"Not to mention, Headmaster Cid informed us that the SeeD's true purpose is to eliminate the sorceress." Squall spoke up, pushing off from his place against the pillar. "I see why he kept it hidden for so long; sometimes it makes me wonder whether the other gardens know why they exist... most probably not, knowing the social panic that would seize the globe at such a bold statement such as that. SeeDs were always raised to be a neutral force in an unbalanced world; saying that we stand against any sorceresses forces us to take a side that not everyone is going to agree on."

"Yeah well, nobody in their right minds could think that compressing time could be a good idea." Zell stubbornly said, crossing his arms. "Just look at this mess! By getting rid of Ultimecia, we'd be saving the lives of people in the past, present, AND future!"

Gina shook her head. "You don't know what's going on in every person's head, Zell. What's common sense to us may be ludicrous to another. No matter how neutral we all strive to be, humans are partial and imperfect beings. We'll always pick a side, whether or not we realize it."

"We just have to make sure that we're comfortable with whatever side or stance we've taken, since we do have to live with the consequences." Sharon chimed in. "And I dunno about you guys, but I'm down with killing this Ultime-bitch."

"Me too." Irvine agreed.

"Me three!" Selphie jumped.

"HELLS YEAH!" Zell whooped, pumping a fist into the air.

"I can't say I disagree." Quistis smiled.

"We've come this far... so we'd better finish what we've started." Gina nodded, and turned to Squall. "So... I guess it's about time we got to it. By your lead, commander?"

_She must be the only person to call me that and not get me pissed off._ "Alright, folks. Let's do this."

* * *

**Veleria:** Yep, I'm back! And I promise, I won't be gone long again. I'm finishing this bad boy, as you can tell by how fast I'm spitting out new chapters now. I make my mom mad, since I hog the computer way too much these days, but oh well. It's for a noble cause, right? LOL


	54. Chapter 54

**A/N:** Well, folks. The final showdown. NOT the final chapter, but the final battle with Ultimecia. I had some fun writing this chapter... so much fun that it kept me up until 7am actually writing all the kinks out of it. So I hope it meets your approval! I'm so going to crash after I upload this to ffnet's server...

* * *

"I HATE EVERYONE!!!" Sharon screamed at the top of her lungs, her proclamation reverberating off of the stone walls in Ultimecia's god-forsaken castle.

When the group finally made their entrance into Castle Oblivion, they made two unwelcome discoveries. One, when they entered, they found that they couldn't leave even if they wanted to turn tail and run, since there was an invisible force holding the front doors shut. Two, that same force that was holding the doors shut seemed to envelop the entire castle in a stasis that prevented them all from using GFs or magic, including Gina. While she was half relieved at the fact that the power she absorbed was muted, Gina knew that if they went up against Ultimecia half-prepared they wouldn't succeed.

So began the long and arduous task of finding each of Ultimecia's guardians and slaying them to break the seal. Sometimes, finding them wasn't hard; the Sphinxaur was waiting for them at the top of the stairs as soon as they entered, and Tri-Point scared the crap out of them by emerging from the wine cellar. Other times... not so much. Trauma only appeared after rearranging Latin words on an impressive painting in the art gallery, and finding Tiamat involved the group jumping precariously on the large brass bell in the bell tower to an opening in the wall.

But the most grueling task about it all was the fact that they couldn't heal using magic or summon any GF's until they found and destroyed them ALL. Scouring every inch of the monstrous mansion was tiring enough, but battles easily got nasty without healing spells. Curative items ran low very fast, and getting up close and personal with monsters like Krysta and Gargantua was not planned or favored. Injuries racked up with each battle, and by the time they finished putting Tiamat in his place they were all worse for wear. The whole group was sprawled out under the unnatural night sky on the small ledge, the light from the very large moon glowing almost peacefully down above them all.

"Hey now, it's not everyone's fault that all of this happened." Irvine pointed out, fanning himself with his cowboy hat.

"Might as well be." Sharon growled, stretching her arms so that the muscles cracked. "We just fought a Bahamut reject. We PREVIOUSLY fought seven other circus rejects, got our ass beat, ran around this entire place enough times to lose ten pounds, and we STILL have yet to actually find and beat Ultimecia. The bitch is probably sitting in an armchair eating grapes and sipping champagne going 'ahahaha SeeDs ahahahaha' and pressing rewind on her satellite feed of our sad excuses at trying to defeat each of her pets that was obviously fed some kind of mutant Purina Dog Chow to turn them into man-eating..."

"Actually, I think all these monsters are her relatives." Zell put in, getting a laugh out of everyone save Squall, whose amusement showed only in his eyes.

"I bet Trauma was her mom, since she had such a wholesome image when she greeted us warmly. Gargantua is the father, who has drinking problems and hits her mom all the time, which is the source of much tension in the household as well as the reason why they have no money and had to mortgage the house. Krysta is Ultimecia's aunt that came to visit under the pretense of getting her sister out of the abusive relationship, but Gargantua found out about it and beat her, too. Ultimecia's brother, the Red Giant, cries himself to sleep every night at the sounds of abuse going on, so he hides himself down in the basement because it's the only place where he can't hear his mom getting beat. He really wants to hold the family dog, Sphinxaur, but Gargantua doesn't like the mangy mutt and keeps him outside on the porch for most of the day. Knowing that he's running out of booze to fuel his habit, he gets involved with Tiamat, his cousin, who deals drugs to earn big bucks. But they don't get far because Catoblepas finds out that they've been conspiring against him at his own drug game, and sends Tri-Point as a hitman to have the entire family killed. The end." Gina rambled off, her eyes half closed.

An age worth of silence fell over the group as they all stared at Gina incredulously before she blinked and shrugged. "What?"

"How did you come up with all of THAT?" Selphie gaped. "The way you casually said it, if we didn't know any better we'd think it was true."

"Eh, that's Gina for ya." Sharon said. "She's always doing stuff like that; keeps you on your toes, I guess." She found herself gazing up at the sky, taking notice of all of the stars that were sparkling innocently down upon them. "I... really wish we didn't have to do this. I find it great that we can sit around and joke like this, under a very beautiful night sky, with the battle of our lives just around the corner. But when all of this is over... well..." She trailed off.

Gina knew what Sharon was hinting at. It was strange how both of them planned almost excessively about getting back home to GVSU, yet never really stopped to think about the fact that they would never see their new found friends again. They focused so much on distancing themselves to lessen the hurt on the gang, and completely forgot about what it would feel like to leave them behind. _This is gonna suck hardcore._

Quistis tilted her head. "What exactly do you mean, Sharon?"

Sharon bit her lip and shook her head. "I... I really don't know. I guess I'm just can't help but feel like a large part of our lives is coming to a close, and despite all the shit we've been through getting here... it's sad." She took a deep breath. "But there's no turning back. It's not worth it to turn back, anyway. And if Ultimecia gets her way, we won't have shit to turn back TO. So... let's crash her party and go home."

Squall got to his feet. "We have a job to finish. And I'm sure we can do it. Ultimecia's had her fun long enough." He turned towards the opening in the wall where they first entered. "Well, there's one good thing; we don't have to jump across the bell anymore unless we want to go back down. The stairs continue up to the top of this tower, which is the only place thus far we haven't checked of this castle. If she's going to be anywhere, she's got to be up there."

Everyone nodded, and gathered themselves to continue their march. "WAIT!" Gina suddenly exclaimed, causing everyone to jump and look around, expecting some sort of surprise attack. "Eh... sorry. Didn't mean to scare you all like that. I just want to cast a quick Cura spell on everyone, to make sure that we're at our best before doing this. We've gone without magic for so long, I myself almost forgot that we can use it, now." Raising her hand, she concentrated the spell over the group, causing muscles to relax, scrapes and cuts to heal up, and an overall sense of freshness to everyone.

"Right. So... are we ready?" Squall asked. _At this point, I feel like I've been born ready._

Climbing up what little there was left of the spiral staircase, the group once again reached the top of the tower, where an elaborate doorway awaited them. Placing one hand on the knob, Squall couldn't help but feel a shiver of apprehension. _This is it... Ultimecia's in there. _Glancing behind him, he caught sight of Gina, who had set her face in determination and gave him a quick nod. Willing his nerves into control, he turned the knob and let the door swing open of its own accord before stepping inside.

The room they entered was... nothing like what they expected, despite the fact that by this time around they had come to expect the unexpected. Marble pillars laced with gold greeted them magnificently, lined around the equally exquisite floor that was circular and seemed to drop off into space. A large chandelier was suspended from what would be the ceiling, if there actually was one. The entire place was floating in midair, where a beautiful dusk sky filled with clouds lazily served as a backdrop. Sunlight from an unknown source filtered softly to the many crystals dangling from the lit chandelier, making small rainbows dance across every shiny surface. Tilting his gaze upward, he saw that in the center was an elevated throne where a long ruby carpet trailed from the base all the way to the door they just entered.

"SeeD..." A figure stood slowly from her once seated position. A gown of the deepest crimson adorned her body, and was impossibly low cut to expose her entire midsection where black tattoos weaved just as seductively around her body. "SeeD... SeeD..." The black feathered collar that was reminiscent of Edea's sorceress outfit contrasted starkly with her pale skin and her long silver hair that fell in cascades over her shoulders and was also partly done up in an elaborate headdress. "SeeD, SeeD, SEED!" Her eyes flashed an unusual red that seemed to be lit from behind with a fierce light, which served to show her expected audience just how irritated she was with them.

Gina thought absentmindedly that Ultimecia would be a very beautiful woman under very different circumstances.

Sharon found herself wondering why she looked so much like Yunalesca.

Selphie was confused at how Ultimecia got up on her high throne in the first place, seeing as though there were no stairs.

In answer to Selphie's silent question, Ultimecia stepped forward, and through a single ripple, appeared on ground level in front of them. "KURSE all SeeDs." She emphasized, pacing to one side slowly, inspecting her visitors with a glare. "Swarming like lokust akross generations. You DISGUST me. The world was on the brink of that ever-elusive 'time compression'. Insolent FOOLS!" From behind her back unfurled black angel wings, which snapped taut ominously. "Your vain krusade ends here, SeeDs. The price for your meddling is death beyond death. I shall send you to a dimension beyond your imagining. There, I will reign, and you will be my slaves for eternity. HAHAHAHAHAHA!"

"I think not, Ultimecia. Our crusade does end here, but it's not in vain." Squall started. "Talk about disgusting. If sorceresses like you didn't exist, then there would be no need for SeeDs."

The sorceress smiled, one that would be genuinely entrancing if not for the malice in her eyes. "Then you should thank me for giving you your reason to live, SeeD." She lifted one hand gracefully. "I will accept your death as an adequate alternative." Flicking her fingers as if batting away a gnat, she sent a small energy current racing towards Squall with enough power to stop his heart on contact.

Thinking fast, Gina flung her own arm to the side, deflecting the current like a baseball to the right, where it blew a chunk out of a pillar.

Ultimecia examined the damage almost casually before turning her eyes on Gina, who tried hard to meet her gaze with the same unflinching determination she had before entering the room. "If the mere existence of SeeDs in my abode wasn't insulting enough, you bring this anomaly to my throne as well." She paced back to the other side, flexing her slender fingers. "This girl who is a disgrace to bear Hyne's power comes before me as my opponent, allied with these despicable SeeDs. Your suffering should be ten fold from that of all SeeDs." She looked back at Squall. "Should I have your knight kill you like the disgrace you are, or should I take part in the torture myself and enjoy the look on his face when he has ample time to drown in his failure while hearing your pitiful skreams echo through my halls?"

A single shot rang through the room as Sharon evidently had enough of all the crap talking and pulled out her pistol. She blinked in surprise as the bullet simply ceased to exist in a shield that was invisibly surrounding Ultimecia. "What the..."

Irvine leaned in to her ear. "That was my problem the FIRST time."

Sharon didn't have time to respond about that ill-fated mission in Deling City, because Ultimecia's laugh cut off any thoughts. "You are more inkompetent than I thought if you believed that your inferior weapon could do me harm." She stretched her wings and flew back to her place on her throne.

"Oh, so now you're gonna run after all that shit you just said?" Zell balked, cracking his knuckles. "Not even give us the chance to shove your teeth down your throat?"

"On the kontrary, SeeD... you must pass a little test, first." She floated above her seat and sparkled with the energy of the spell she was going to cast. "The most powerful GF..." The ground started trembling ever so slightly. "You... shall... SUFFER!" Her cackle was only overshadowed by the large white circle of light she held in her palm, and in a gust of wind, she threw it down before the feet of the group. It took a moment, but the ground lit up in front of them and light beams shot up to the heavens as a large black paw emerged and grasped the edges to pull the rest of its body out.

"What the FUCKING HELL IS THAT?!?!" Sharon exclaimed, tripping backwards and falling on her ass.

"Griever." Squall answered as the hulking form of the legendary GF became fully visible. In an impressive show, Griever nimbly shot out of the floor and flipped in midair, extending his wings that held the skeletal form of a bat yet were adorned with brilliant white feathers. In one mighty roar, the pillars, chandelier, and even the throne fell away so that the battlefield was even more open to the sky. The brilliant red plumes on the black lion's head served as the makeshift crown that identified him as the true king among GF's, his muscular frame towering impossibly over everyone.

"... would you guys blame me if I started to cry right about now?" Sharon asked from her place on the ground.

"Uh, maybe not." Zell replied. "I really don't know how we are gonna get through this."

"I don't think our weapons are going to do us much good." Quistis mused. "We need to use magic to take it down."

Gina stepped forward. "I could unleash what power I have to destroy it. The only problem is, I don't know what it's going to do to me if I don't reign myself in after that."

"No." Everyone turned their attention towards Squall. "If any of us get hit by Griever, we're all dead. Magic would take too long if we all threw spells at it, and risking Gina to insanity isn't an option. She's done enough already. We'll fight fire with fire, if Ultimecia wants to play this game."

"Meaning..." Quistis asked.

"GFs!" Selphie exclaimed, catching onto Squall's idea. "Look, if we each summon a GF to unleash their strongest attacks on Griever, that should totally win it for us!"

Squall nodded. "We have to do this fast, and make sure that you don't summon a GF that someone else is already calling." He turned towards Griever, who was starting to cast something of its own. He didn't know what it was, but judging on how the scenery around them seemed to be spinning, he figured it wouldn't be good for them if he finished. "Shiva!"

Selphie raised her nunchaku. "SIREN!"

"Diablos!"

"Quezacotl!"

"Leviathan!"

"Ifrit!"

Gina racked her brain for a GF that hadn't been called yet, and decided that this was the time to haul out the big guns. "BAHAMUT!"

One by one, the guardians they called shimmered into existence, hovering in a half circle around Griever. Shiva raised her arms and fired her large ice beam while Diablos called down a crackling black ball of gravity. Quezacotl crackled with her own electric storm together with Ifrit, who was hauling almost every piece of hellfire and brimstone he had to offer. Leviathan and Siren sent torrents of water crashing down on their foe, while Bahamut soared to the heavens to finish off the entire spectacle with a very impressive Mega Flare.

_Knights of the Round have nothing on this. _Gina shielded her eyes from the flashes of light and energy that the entities created. By the time the dust settled, the GFs made their exit, and Griever had fallen from the sky, its wings tattered and broken and crimson blood running from many wounds on its body. As it gasped for breath, Gina felt sorry for it. _It's not Griever's fault that its master summoned it to do her dirty work in her own crazy war._

As the same light that summoned Griever into existence began to envelop him once more, Ultimecia's voice seemed to ring out from the air that surrounded them all. "I will junction myself... unto Griever! Together... we will rid time itself of the SeeDs that dare oppose us!"

"What the crap?!" Zell exclaimed, slapping his forehead. "We can't fight BOTH of them! That's not fair!"

"IF we survive this duo, then we won't have much left to fight Ultimecia herself when she's done playing games with us." Quistis said grimly, clutching her whip. "We could try summoning our GFs back, but I don't know how it'll do against the combined powers of a sorceress and her guardian."

Squall's answer to this was to check the barrel of his gunblade and snap it back into place. If he had to, he would CUT Griever off of Ultimecia. _We've come too far to fail. She WILL go down._

"Wait..." Gina held out her arm. "I'll... see if I can talk to it."

Irvine's eyeballs all but popped out of his skull. "Talk to what? Griever? The thing that just wanted to kill us a few moments ago?"

"Look, it's the best chance we've got!" Gina shot back. "GFs have a will of their own. While it's true that they do what their told by the person who has power over them, they can still make their own decisions. It was Ultimecia's will that we should be destroyed... it may not be Griever's."

Sharon blinked and looked at Gina as if she was crazy, but shrugged in the end. "Well, go for it. And do it quick; home-bitch is working fast." She indicated the black electricity surrounding Griever, and the white ball of light that was Ultimecia's consciousness coming forth to make the union.

"Uh... okay." Gina took a deep breath and sent out what she thought was a telepathic link to the large injured creature in front of them. _Griever... Griever! Hear me! I wish to speak with you!_

_You, who would call forth my brethren to wound me, ask for permission to speak? _A deep voice reverberated through the depths of Gina's mind, nearly taking her by surprise. It was so loud that if she didn't know better, she'd think that everyone could hear what the powerful GF was saying.

_Umm... yes. Forgive our transgression, for if it was our choice, we wouldn't have wanted to fight you at all. It is your master, Ultimecia, who is our enemy._

_My master's enemy is my enemy._

Gina tried her best to turn this conversation to her favor. _You, who are a noble and powerful entity, should have a better master than Ultimecia. She is just using you to her own means that will end up destroying you._

_Show me proof that my master is capable of the atrocities you claim._

She really wanted to tear her hair out. Time was running out, and she had to keep herself from losing her patience. _Proof? Look at what she's doing! She's transgressed the laws of the universe herself and done something no one should ever do! She's used the powers Hyne has granted her and taken the past, present, and future and compressed it together in order to rule supreme!_

A moment's pause. _This is not Hyne's will?_

_No! Hyne would never allow someone or something other than himself to reign so supremely over time itself, especially in such a fashion that causes the deaths of millions of people across countless generations! Sorceresses are scions of Hyne, not replacements. You would not want to be the reason why Ultimecia breaches the great heavenly law that keeps all life in its rightful place._

Gina held her breath while waiting for the GF's next response.

_Do you seek to be my new master?_

_No. But I, and my companions, seek to end this war by defeating Ultimecia and setting things right once again. This is... not your battle, and you need time to heal. There will be other people more worthy than myself that may seek your aid in the future._

_... Understood._

Waiting anxiously for this silent exchange to complete, everyone noticed that the black sparks that were surroundings Griever's form suddenly grew and exploded to knock back the light force that was approaching him.

"What is this?!" Ultimecia's enraged voice rang out. "Griever! Obey me! Let us join!"

"I will not assist a heretic unto Hyne." Griever responded, sending tremors into the ground. "You are no longer worthy to be my master, and I invoke the Great Law that unbinds me from your service." As the white light once again encircled his form, he sent one last message out to Gina.

_If you succeed in delivering this sorceress to justice, then you will be more than worthy to call on me as my master. _The light faded and dissipated, leaving the sky strangely empty.

"Well... I'll be damned." Irvine whistled. "It actually worked."

"Really." Sharon nudged Gina in the arm. "What the hell did you tell it? Was there lots of mental groveling and ass kissing?"

Gina shrugged. "Well... maybe a little ass-kissing, but none that Griever didn't deserve, anyway. I just told him the truth, that Ultimecia is a crazy bitch that will upset all life as we know it and he shouldn't have a hand in it. It took a bit, but he agreed with me, and offered to let me be his new master."

"WHAT?" Zell jumped, gawking at her.

"You... must have really impressed him." Quistis said. "GFs never offer their services until they are sought, and the person seeking must usually undergo some sort of test to judge his or her worth before a GF will even think of serving them."

"As much as I'm sure we'd like to continue our fruitful conversation," Squall jutted in, with an edge of sarcasm to his voice. "We have bigger things to worry about."

The ball of light that was Ultimecia's presence began to spin very fast and grew slowly to twice its size before exploding in a shower of sparkles that drifted down upon them all almost like snow flakes against the sky that was now darkening to black. Everyone except Squall took a moment to glance around, both intrigued by the beauty of it all and wary about what it all meant.

Soon, they found out.

From beneath the floor that wasn't even in existence anymore, rose a figure that was about as tall as Griever was and just as frightening. Blue claws attached to meaty forearms that were lined with completely visible veins of blue and red unfurled above what Squall guessed to be the head, which was now simply hollow. In the place of eyes, nose, and mouth, was simply light, pulsing faintly. Large bat wings sat atop her head, and the once elegant crimson gown flowed in tatters and billowed in the breeze that no one could feel. But what terrified them most of all was the fact that this figure ceased to exist at the torso, where the real body of Ultimecia was hanging upside down, twined in endless crimson ribbon that bound her arms to her body. Her luxurious silver hair hung, completely free, and flowed like a waterfall to the ground.

"Oh hell no..." Sharon whispered. "This is some Silent Hill shit right here."

When the figure spoke, the voice came from all around them. "I am Ultimecia. Time shall compress... all existence denied." The light in the head flickered and then expanded in a bright flash that summoned an upward flurry of black feathers and what sounded like a thousand wailing souls.

Selphie swallowed. "Umm... GF time?"

Gina shook her head. "No. She'll banish them if we do that."

"Well, how else are we going to beat her? She's already proven that our weapons don't do shit." Irvine reminded her.

Before anyone could come up with an appropriate solution, the ground beneath them lit up in an intricate series of glyphs and circles that glowed an iridescent mix of magentas, purples, and blues. Around the borders of the main circle, fires flared up impossibly high, causing a wave of almost unbearable heat to entrap the group in the center.

_No... it's Hell's Judgement..._ Gina reached out and squeezed Sharon's hand, who was ice cold and shaking.

"Reflect... on your childhood..." The disembodied voice resonated as purple swirls of light joined the flames imprisoning them.

"Ah!" Quistis dropped her whip and raised both of her hands to her throat, wheezing dangerously. "I can't... breathe..."

"Your sensation... your words... your emotions..."

One by one, the group started dropping like flies, feeling their lungs tighten painfully in their chests and their throats making it difficult to intake any more air. Squall felt himself grow dizzy, and used his gunblade to help him stay upright.

"Time... it will not wait..."

Flashes of his childhood came unbidden to his mind, sometimes like still photographs, others like movie clips. Squall saw himself playing with his friends, then sitting on Edea's lap as she bandaged a scrape, then standing outside on the porch as the rain poured down, matching the tears that streamed down his own cheeks as he waited for his Sis to return.

"No matter how hard you hold on... it escapes you."

_No... it can't end here. Not this way... _ Squall forced himself to breathe, but his eyes were watering with the effort and the fact that the flames obscuring his vision from Ultimecia were too hot. _We came here to finish this, not to die! But I don't know how... I can't..._

"Squall." Turning his head to the left, he saw Gina using what little energy she had to choke out her words. "Use... use your gunblade. Cut her down. I'll help you, so you can do it."

He squinted at her as if she was crazy. There was no way he was going to get through the pillars of flame, and even if he did, he was sure that Ultimecia could deflect his weapon as if it were a mere toothpick.

"Squall!" She called more urgently, her voice hoarse with the effort. "Do it! We... we can't last much longer! Please..." Gina looked to him, unable to speak anymore. Her eyes lightened to that hazel color, and her streaks had once again turned white. Her next words weren't spoken, but he felt them in his mind, an eerie backdrop to his childhood memories still replaying in his head.

_Trust me._

_Trust..._ Time and time again, Squall asked himself the question of whether or not he could ever trust another person enough to open his heart to them, with all of its cuts and bruises that he kept locked away inside himself for so long that he didn't know if he was even capable of trusting anymore. It terrified him. It was his reason for being the way he was, even if it fucked up his life and others who tried to get past his impenetrable shell.

But his friends, the friends that stuck by him despite all of that, who never let him down... were worth the risk. _I trust you._

As soon as he relinquished his fears, the childhood memories that haunted him vanished in a wisp, leaving his purpose clear. His lungs opened up to allow him to take unrestrained breath, and the heat that was once so engulfing seemed insignificant. Raising his gunblade, he saw that the adamantine plate was shining... no, _glowing_... with a supernatural force. It was almost as if Hyne himself had bestowed upon Squall a legendary weapon that would allow him to bring down the traitor, the sorceress that would dare to usurp the balance of the universe.

Crouching slightly, he held his gunblade firmly in his grasp as wind created a small funnel around him, causing the circle of fire that was entrapping his friends to uproot and implant itself around the blade itself, making the already extraordinary glow blaze with the power of the sun. Then he rushed forward and struck Ultimecia again and again, each strike causing a minor explosion with the impact. He didn't care where he hit, as long as damage was being dealt. His adrenaline rose with each successful strike until he used all of his energy to whip his blade up into a crescent which sent a current of pure energy racing through the sorceress and off far into the distance where it disappeared into the never ending darkness.

_Justice... has been served._ Gina thought, hoping that Griever was somewhere able to receive the message. She was so exhausted with the effort of using her sorceress powers to that degree that she wanted to just collapse right where she was and sleep for a good week and a half, but she knew she couldn't do that yet.

Everyone, their various states of wear and tear aside, looked up to watch as Ultimecia's monstrous form convulsed before finally rending apart from the inside out with blinding white light that shone to envelop them all as well as their bleak surroundings. As Ultimecia vanished in it all, time seemed to slow... and slow... and slow...

... until it came to a complete halt in the midst of the white void.

* * *

**Maaske Tsukikage:** Thank you! I really appreciate all of the E-mails you've sent me, even though I suck and disappeared for a year before I continued writing this story. There's no need to be envious; I go chapter to chapter not really planning out anything, so I think this is one big fluke that it turned out this well. I'm sure your Fire Emblem fiction is good, too! I regrettably haven't played any of the Fire Emblem series... but I might have to just so I can check your story out! Or maybe I'll just be lazy and read a Wikipedia entry on the plot line so I'm not too lost so I can read it anyway... yeah...


	55. Chapter 55

**A/N: ** It took me forever (compared to the rate I was firing out chapters prior to this) to write this one. Maybe because I know it's getting closer to the end so I start stalling again. No, it's STILL not the final chapter, but the way I tarried on writing this you'd think it was.

Oh, and I updated my ffnet user info. I made it shorter and added a picture of myself, because I think I missed out on that nifty new addition ffnet made to their servers while I was writer's block'd for a year.

* * *

Coasting along under a beautiful night sky, Balamb Garden was doing an around the world "cruise" to commemorate the beginning of a time of peace that the world has never known. Along with others who were undoubtedly having parties of their own, a large celebration was taking place in the formal hall of Balamb Garden. Dressed in their best (which, for most in attendance, was their SeeD or cadet uniform), people milled around gaily and talked amongst themselves while taking advantage of the multitude of hor'dourves and drinks available on heavily garnished tables. Off to one side was the Estharian President with his faithful companions, ironically dressed more formally than they ever were in the large technological metropolis. Kiros was outfitted in a maroon blouse that shimmered faintly in the light, along with dark brown slacks and black shoes. Ward was wearing a long sleeved light blue sweater with white slacks that complimented his form and his light blue eyes nicely. Laguna was by far the most formal out of the three, wearing a black suit with a pressed white blouse underneath. But he was also the one having the most trouble with his outfit.

"Hyne, could you just STOP pulling on it already!" Kiros rolled his eyes and elbowed his friend in the side. "It looks better if you leave it alone."

Laguna ignored the lecture and pulled his tie a bit looser around his neck. "Well, I hate these things, you know that. If it wasn't so important to look 'presentable' as you'd like to put it, I wouldn't have let you do this to me."

"Well actually, you didn't let me at first. Ward had to persuade you by removing all of your other clothes out of your closet and leaving just the suit in there and locked you in your room until you begrudgingly agreed."

Ward smirked as Laguna shot him the hurt puppy look. "That was very mean, by the way. I never would have thought him capable of such underhandedness. But of course, I forgive him, since I know it was you who influenced him."

Kiros laughed. "Yeah yeah yeah, go ahead and blame me like you always do. I'm used to it. But someday you'll thank us BOTH. We won't hold our breaths, though." He paused and looked up as the headmaster and his wife ascended the stage at the front of the hall. "And here's the moment we've all been waiting for."

The clamor in the spacious room slowly died down as everyone turned their attention to the front.

"Greetings, ladies and gentlemen." Headmaster Cid started into the microphone, smiling warmly at everyone. "We are gathered here today to celebrate a very important event, one that this world has barely had the time to prepare for. Joining us in our festivities, the elusive yet famous in his own right, President of Esthar Laguna Loire has graced us with his presence."

A round of applause greeted him then, causing Laguna to flush and wave sheepishly to all of the people nodding approvingly towards him. _I swear I'll never get used to this._

"Speaking of time..." Cid continued after the crowd stilled again. "How often do we take it for granted? Before we know it, we're grown, doing our own things away from the people that we love the most, our childhood memories near forgotten." He paused for a second to smile at Edea. "But, as much as time can be our enemy, it can also be our ally. Time makes us wiser, and with that wisdom we can strive to make our lives and the lives of those most important to us that much more special. This world was faced with a most unique danger that threatened to take time itself away from us, in the form of a very powerful sorceress named Ultimecia. On the brink of disaster, a group of individuals braved trial after trial to conquer Ultimecia and bring an end to the downward spiral our land has seen for quite some time. Without further ado, I call to the podium our very special saviors, led by our very own commander Squall Leonhart!"

Almost drowned out by the reverent applause and whistles, the band began playing a very familiar tune, known to Final Fantasy addicts around the world. Gina and Sharon personally dubbed it the "graduation theme", and held secret hopes that when they graduated from college that they could con someone into replacing the tired "Pomp and Circumstance" piece with the one they credited to be better. A path was cleared to the podium from the doorway as the orphanage gang filed in, with the two helpful interlopers and a very bouncy moomba. Squall kept his gaze on his destination, refusing to be distracted by the applause that seemed to become deafening to his ears. Selphie jumped and waved at friends as she walked by, and Zell added to the noise by whooping like Arsenio Hall and pumping a fist into the air. Quistis maintained her usual calm and grace by smiling and lifting her head respectfully to the audience, causing a group of Trepies (which had increased tremendously in size) to swoon. Irvine added to this spectacle by tipping his cowboy hat and winking to his own group of followers, causing them to squeal excitedly to one another. To this, Sharon rolled her eyes and resisted the urge to boot him in the ass and just settled for trading glances with Gina, who was bringing up the rear with Ravi who was very excited to have his owner back. Squall, Zell, Selphie and Quistis were wearing their royal blue SeeD uniforms, while Irvine dazzled the crowd by wearing a full white suit with a matching hat, the jacket of the ensemble almost brushing the floor. Gina was a little bit more casual yet wore a nice black blouse with faint red and white vertical stripes that shimmered in the light along with black slacks and shoes. The red in her blouse brought out the red streaks on either side of her head, and her hair was pulled back into the usual ponytail and revealed looped diamond earrings. Sharon, on the other hand, had decided to pull out the stops and actually wear a black dress that was asymmetrical, with the longest part of the skirt reaching just below the knee. Her hair was pulled up from her shoulders in a black clip that showed off the fact that the dress tied around her neck and hung black satin ribbons down the back.

Headmaster Cid nodded in approval as they all ascended the stage and stood in a line behind him, and turned back to the microphone. "Well, I certainly think that you've heard me rattle on enough. It's time for our commander to give us a few of his words of encouragement that will help christen this wonderful evening." To more cheers and calls, he turned and presented the handle of the microphone to Squall, who glanced to his friends uncertainly as if he wanted to beg them to save him from this. Of course, all he got were adamant nods and shooing hand motions forward, so he stifled a sigh and took the mic while facing the humongous turn-out the gala produced.

"Umm... hi. I... don't really know what to say; I'm not much of a public speaker." Squall paused at the tale-tell snort he knew came from Sharon, and it helped him relax a little. "I never thought I would be in the position I am now, not only as a commander of the Garden I have come to know as my home, but also now as a worldwide hero." He cleared his throat and in the crowd he caught the eyes of Ellone, who was nodding reassuringly at him. "I'll save you the details of the hardships we all went through. I don't think it's important to rehash those stories, especially at an event such as this. But I do know that I don't deserve all of the spotlight that's on me right now. What all of this has taught me was a lesson that I know I'll never forget; to rely on and cherish your friends. Without them, I know I wouldn't have made it this far. This victory is shared among all of them, new and old, and what I won't hesitate to do now is to show my appreciation for each of them."

Squall took a deep breath and looked out further into the crowd. "To President Laguna Loire; I thank you for your support that helped us through a crucial part in our journey. I'm sure you hate being put in the spotlight as much as I do, but you presented leadership skills along with giving us the faith that we all needed to get us prepared for a battle nobody could ever really be truly ready for. In my opinion, Esthar couldn't have a better president.

"To Ellone... Sis. You gave us the key to defeating Ultimecia by using your unique abilities in a way that a lesser person would have cowered at doing. But also, you gave us all the support you could just by being who you are; the supportive figure that you've always been to us over all these years, even when we had forgotten our younger days. Thank you for never forgetting."

He turned around to face the group behind him. "Zell, where do I begin? As annoyingly hyper as you can be at times, I've come to accept the fact that you balance me out. You're headstrong and always eager to do what's right, no matter the cost. Without your enthusiasm, I believe that our journey would have been a lot longer and more strenuous."

Zell grinned. "Even if I talk too much and blurted out our business that one time in Timber?"

Squall gave him a look, but there was much humor behind it. "Don't give yourself too much credit. You're still an awful roommate." He looked over to Quistis next. Things were still a bit awkward between them since that hefty speech Seifer had given him in Lunatic Pandora, but nothing they both weren't experts at masking until the time came for them to eventually face it. "Professor Trepe... you were very much the voice of reason that we needed to get us through tough situations. You demonstrated qualities that make you deserving of your instructor permit here at Balamb Garden, and also knew when it was okay to bend the rules a little bit to get the job done. Even though you got dragged into all of this unknowingly, I'm sure all of us here don't regret your presence throughout the entire mission.

"Mr. Irvine Kinneas... all of us from Balamb Garden thank you for the use of your renowned sharp shooting abilities. When it counted the most, you never missed your target. I also personally thank you for being the one to initially make us remember the times when we were at the orphanage, otherwise I'm sure all of that would have been lost to time. Despite whatever kind of charm you have with the ladies, you do have a leveler head than most.

"Selphie Tilmitt... I'm glad that you decided to transfer from your previous home of Trabia Garden to join us here at Balamb, since I don't think the Homecoming Festival would have even got off of the ground, much less become the success that it was. Your greatest gift to all of us is your ability to never stop smiling or hoping for the best, no matter what comes. Not to mention your piloting skills on the Ragnarok got us through to Lunatic Pandora when we otherwise wouldn't have found a suitable way to break through."

"Yay!" Selphie clapped her hands together. "So... does that mean you'll actually update the diary I made for you on the site as a way to thank me for ALL I've done?"

Squall coughed. "Umm... well... I'll think about it, I promise."

Gina and Sharon traded glances again as Squall turned his attention towards both of them. Gina really didn't know what he'd say about her despite her rather large role in the whole adventure, and Sharon was just hoping that she wouldn't have to cuss him out if he said anything she didn't like in front of such a large crowd.

"I know you both are wondering what I'm going to say in regards to both of your contributions in all of this." Squall began. "But before I say any more, I should pass the microphone back to the Headmaster, because he has a very important announcement to make."

Blinking in confusion, both girls watched as Cid took over the mic. "Now, if you two recall, on your very first mission I promised you both that if it was a success, on your return you would be considered SeeDs. I'm sure that it's not only I who had forgotten that little fact, seeing as thought you embarked on an adventure unplanned by everyone that put you through more trials and tribulations that even a tried and true SeeD wouldn't have dreamed of encountering. So, even though your first mission was ended before the job actually had the time it needed to be completed... I think I can substitute your success in saving the world as a passing grade in what has got to be the most impromptu and extensive Field Exam any Garden has ever given. Sharon-Ann Gladden and Regina Stewart, I proclaim you both Grade A SeeDs of Balamb Garden."

Gina's mouth dropped open at this news, especially as she was handed her very own SeeD uniform by Squall himself. Looking down to admire the gold brocade around the shoulders of the jacket, she also had the other shock of her life when she realized that hers had pants instead of the regular skirt. In response to her surprise, Squall leaned forward and whispered, "I remember how much you don't like skirts, so I had you fitted for the alternate uniform." Her brain still refused to work properly as her best friend was handed her own uniform and applause erupted from both the crowd below and the people on the stage with her. _It's like a dream... I'm actually a hero in my most favorite Final Fantasy universe of all time... _She could barely remember to stop gaping.

As Squall received the microphone back from Cid, Sharon, who had the most strained expression on her face, immediately snatched it out of his hand.

"With all due respect, commander... I'm going to have to tell you to shut up with the speeches." Sharon swallowed and tried to will the tears back into her eye sockets. "Because if I start to cry, my mascara will run, and Quistis will kill me because it took her two hours to do my makeup for this event." The audience chuckled at this, and Sharon nodded to Cid. "I'm sure I speak for both me and Gina when I say that this honor at being officially made SeeDs is more than what we ever deserved, and all the thanks in the world couldn't properly convey our endless gratitude." She took a moment to press her hand to her chest and gaze upwards at the ceiling in almost a melodramatic manner before continuing. "This is a celebration, is it not? Well, so far I don't see much celebration, I see a bunch of people standing on a stage while way more people gaze upwards at the stage listening to us talk. It's heartfelt, I know... but where I come from, that's not how parties roll. Selphie, Zell... if you please."

Now it was Squall's turn to be confused as Zell and Selphie leaped down from the stage and went to different corners of the room, heading for draped boxes that he really didn't pay much attention to. Four times total, the tarps that were covering the mystery boxes were pulled away by his friends to reveal the largest speakers Squall has ever seen in his entire life. Frankly, they horrified him, especially when Sharon stepped behind them all to pull back a tarp of her own that covered an extensive (and shiny) DJ platform that was flanked with two more of the large speaker systems.

"I do remember our very handsome President Laguna distinctly telling us to 'do our best and come on back so we can have the party of the century'. And even though I'd like to say the party of the century was the one hosted by Selphie as our Homecoming Festival, we don't want to disappoint by falling short of that. SO... we're just going to have to do better." Sharon's eyes no longer sparkled with threatening tears but with a mischievous glint. "To those below, I would advise you if you are standing anywhere within five feet of the speakers to move away to someplace where you're not so likely to go deaf within 3 seconds."

"Sharon..." Squall started warningly. She was not SERIOUSLY going to make the biggest event Balamb Garden has ever and will ever know into a raucous free-for-all.

"What?" She replied almost innocently. "I'm not evil... just conscious of the fact that I know how to party." She winked at Gina for the mangled use of her catch phrase. "Besides, Headmaster Cid said it was okay."

Cid threw up his hands as Squall looked at him questionably. "I admit, I gave her the okay; she needed enough help getting those monstrosities in here to begin with. Besides... what harm can it do to spice things up a bit?"

Squall pressed a finger to his forehead and Edea laughed, holding her husband's arm lovingly. "Squall, dear... loosen up a bit. You've done your duty far better than any of us could have hoped. Now let yourself relax."

_But you don't know Sharon like I do..._ He looked up warily as Sharon produced a CD and placed it in the player after settling large headphones over her ears. "DJ Hypaa will dedicate this one to both the president and the commander, in hopes that they find this as amusing as I do. Have a enjoy!" With that, she pressed a button, and bass erupted out of the speakers all over the hall, enough to make the ground vibrate with each beat.

_1, here comes the 2 to the 3 to the 4_

_Everybody drunk out on the dance floor_

_Babygirl ass jiggle like she want more_

_Like she a groupie and I ain't even on tour_

Gina turned away and stifled a laugh as everyone except Squall got down in their own way to the music pumping from every corner of the room, and decided it was a good time to place both Sharon's and her own uniform in the dorm they shared so it didn't get mistakenly left behind. _That, and if I stay in front of these speakers for any longer, I will get the migraine of a century._ She smiled as she caught sight of Zell making a beeline for the food table, with Ravi not too far behind. She made her exit unnoticed amidst all of the activity in the hall and breathed in the cooler air outside.

With all of the life behind her, Gina walked down the hallway slowly back towards the main ring that would allow her to take the hall towards the dorms. Balamb Garden was very still and quiet outside of the room she just left, and she found herself memorizing little details in her surroundings. The time had come when she was able to fully think about getting back home to GVSU, and it definitely was a somber moment. She remembered all too well the moment that made her remember that she never did truly belong in this world, and she swore she would always think about it any time she hesitated in her ability to re-open the portal that would lead both her and Sharon back to their own. But as time passed and their journey progressed, Gina realized that it didn't matter as much as she originally thought it would. Somewhere along the way, she had become bonded with those people she once only looked at as Final Fantasy characters coming to life by some weird twist of fate. They were her friends, as real and as important to her as anyone else close to her in her own world were, and she now had to leave them.

It was quite a painful epiphany to come to terms with.

Pausing at times to appreciate the beautiful decor the deserted hallways held, Gina eventually made it to her room and placed each uniform delicately on their respective beds before departing once more, deciding to head back to the main party before people realized she was gone. On her way out, however, she noticed a figure standing out on one of the balconies near the main entrance to the Garden.

"Enjoying the breeze, commander?" Gina asked, stepping beside him to gaze out at the sea they were passing by, the moonlight glittering off of the tiny waves on its surface.

"More like enjoying the feeling of my brain not being tossed around by loud music." Squall replied, the wind ruffling his already unruly chestnut hair. "By the way, that meeting you wanted with the Headmaster will be tomorrow around 3pm."

Gina felt her stomach tighten at the mention of this, but it was at her request that Squall secure the date as soon as possible. _I wish it wasn't going to be so soon..._ "I bet he's confused at why we would want to meet with him. All the trouble and missions are over, and this is a time of celebration and peace for everyone."

"Just a bit. But he obliged the request of 'sooner rather than later' all the same." He looked at her out of the corner of his eye. "Have you figured out what you're going to say to him?"

"Sadly, no I haven't. Not outside of just telling the truth, anyway." Gina bit her lip and leaned on the railing. "If I think about it too much, it only serves to freak me out, so I'll just take it as it comes."

Squall made a noise of agreement and continued to stare out to sea for a few moments more. Even though they weren't saying anything, Gina appreciated the comfortable silence that followed. She didn't want to discuss tomorrow. She just wanted to cherish the few moments she had left of her time at Garden, knowing that after everything was said and done she'd have nothing but a memory to go by.

"When time started setting itself straight after Ultimecia was defeated, I experienced some interesting things in the time stream." Squall spoke, breaking the silence. "I found out how Matron got her sorceress powers. I don't even know if she knows who the woman was who appeared in front of her half-dying, but even if she doesn't I don't think I should tell her that it was the sorceress that ended up possessing her later on in her life. But I think I find it almost funny how things came full circle... and it's freaky. I wonder if the future really will end up like the one we were in, fighting Ultimecia."

Gina thought for a moment and finally shrugged. "Who is to really say what the future holds? It could go one way or the other. The future could unfold like we saw it, but we know that it won't last, since we were the ones who put a stop to her reign at last. Or, that whole timeline might be eliminated along with Ultimecia, and a new future could await everyone. Either way... we're not going to be around to see it."

Squall gave a slight smirk. "Never thought I'd hear that from the mouth of someone who is 'psychic'."

Gina returned the grin. "Oh, like you believed in that kind of thing, anyway."

"Maybe not, but you did have the uncanny ability to pinpoint things that you otherwise couldn't have known. The only reason why I didn't question it is because I knew I wouldn't get answers... answers that made any kind of sense, anyway." He paused in thought before realizing that he was sinking back into himself again, and decided to voice what was on his mind instead. "Coming back to the present time almost didn't work out for me. I got distracted, first by viewing the past and then getting confused about what I was trying to get back to."

Gina raised an eyebrow and turned more fully towards Squall. "What do you mean? We decided on Edea's house before all of that crazy stuff got started to ensure that nobody would get lost in time compression."

"I know... but I was confused. I remember walking around what seemed like a barren wasteland, looking and calling for you guys. When I thought of my friends, my head was running through my childhood memories, but I knew I couldn't go back to the past. I... I started to panic. Somewhere inside, I knew that if I kept this up, then I'd be wandering around between time endlessly, and I didn't want to be alone."

"But you made it back okay, obviously." Gina said, thoroughly surprised that he was pouring out his heart to her like this.

"That's true, but I don't think I could have done it without your help."

Now she was confused. "My help? What did I do?"

He looked at her pointedly. "You showed me how important it was to trust."

Gina flushed slightly and stared down at her feet where she kicked an imaginary pebble around. "What does that have to do with anything?" She mumbled almost incoherently, but Squall caught the gist of what she said.

"You know better than I do. I distinctly remember asking you awhile back how you and Sharon got to become as close as you two are now. Back then, I couldn't fathom why anyone would even WANT to put that much base in someone else. But now... I think I understand why it's so important."

"You would have figured it out without me, I'm sure." Gina spoke to the ground, unable to look at him.

Squall watched her shuffle around with her head down and sighed before looking back out over the railing. "I guess I would have. But I don't think I could have realized it this soon without you. So... thank you."

Gina was pretty much speechless for the umpteenth time that evening. "Uh... you're... you're welcome, Squall."

He remained staring thoughtfully out at the sky for a few minutes longer before turning to face her again, his face alight with a conclusion. "I want you to have this." Reaching within the collar of his uniform, he unearthed the Griever pendant that never left his neck. Gina watched incredulously as he unhooked it and held it out to her, and stepped back in shock.

"WOW... Uh... thank you but... no. That means too much to you and I can't..."

Squall's answer to this was to step forward and place it around her neck and carefully hook it into place. "This is an order, Stewart. Take it. Hyne knows I won't have the opportunity to give you anything once you get back to Grand Valley."

She bit her lip almost hard enough to draw blood as she gazed down at the necklace, the Griever pendant laying heavily on her chest. She really didn't plan on crying, and had done a pretty good job thus far despite everything that had happened that night, but her resolve seemed to be crumbling now as she could do nothing but stare at the gift her favorite Final Fantasy character had given her as her vision rippled and blurred with unshed tears. She tried her best to choke down all of her emotions that had risen with the lump in her throat, and raised her head to look at him. "Squall, I..."

She didn't get much farther than that because Squall had taken the next bold step to lean down and place a soft kiss on her lips.

_If I died RIGHT NOW... I think it'd be both bittersweet and elated all at once._ The kiss was short, but not rushed, and seemed to convey all of things Squall couldn't say. She wanted to memorize the feel of his lips on hers, knowing that she'd never get the chance to experience that ever again. Oddly, this also eliminated Gina's need to cry only seconds before, and she blinked rapidly in shock as Squall straightened himself up and turned to walk back inside.

"I think we should head back to the party now. It IS in our honor, so if we skip out too long they might actually start hunting for us." He stopped and looked back at Gina who was still standing in the place he left her, reeling.

Regaining control of the situation, Gina managed a grin and gave a mock salute. "Yes, sir."

To this, Squall gave her a true smile, and together they walked back to ballroom.

* * *

**Serene Angel Wing:** What kind of hero am I to disappear for a YEAR? LOL Hell, what you really should be saying is, "where in the HELL is the rest of the story, bitch??" AHAHAH!! Gina's real-life rambling totally puts me to shame, however; I could only hope to pull something out of my ass anywhere near the things Gina usually says. And... OMG UR REVIEW NUMBER 100! Okay, okay... all joking aside, I really enjoyed your review. I think it's one of the most detailed ones I have ever received on ffnet, and it made me smile. A LOT. And laugh at the "oh crap, I died. Isn't that just dandy?" part.


	56. Chapter 56

**A/N:** Took me long to post this chapter because my life seems to get more complicated by the day. This just goes to tell me that if I do not finish SR soon, it might find itself unfinished for another undetermined amount of time. And I would hate myself if that happened THISCLOSE to the end. So I'm going to try to finish it before the end of this week. Keep your fingers crossed.

* * *

"So, why exactly did you call this meeting? I have to admit, Squall had me a bit intrigued at its urgency." Headmaster Cid asked, leaning comfortably back in the armchair in his office.

It was a beautiful sunny day, with a warm breeze carrying tufts of clouds slowly through the blue sky. The celebration the night before had carried well into the very early hours of the morning, not to mention someone had managed to spike the punch bowls sometime during the evening so many SeeDs and cadets were slightly hung over by the time they made it back to their rooms. All in all, the Garden was back in its original position near the town of Balamb, and things were carrying along as normal. Classes wouldn't start for a couple of days, giving students time to go see their families and just relax.

The only people NOT relaxed and normal and happy were the two girls fidgeting in front of their headmaster, trading glances back and forth to see who would say something first. Ravi was trying to make Gina feel a little better by making reassuring noises, but it wasn't doing too much to make the situation better.

"We're here!" Selphie's sing-songy voice rang out as she came through the double doors to the office, dragging Zell by one arm. "It took me FOREVER to drag this guy away from the concession stand in the cafeteria."

"I was HUNGRY, OKAY??" Zell proclaimed defensively, waving a half-eaten hot dog in his free hand to make his point. "It's been forever since I've had one of these things!"

"Seeing how you cleared nearly two tables worth of snacks last night, it's a miracle you even have room for more today." Quistis put in with a smile, appearing next.

As Zell opened his mouth to protest, Irvine clamped a hand on his shoulder. "Don't even try it, man. We know your stomach is the black hole of all of the world's food. We just wonder where you put it all."

"Man, what IS this?? Pick on Zell day?" He whined.

Cid laughed and leaned forward. "Well, unless that was the purpose of this meeting, I don't think so. I'm sure you all didn't need my office to discuss the many complexities of Zell's undying appetite."

"Umm... no sir." Gina said, butterflies that had settled temporarily kicked up again. She looked back over her shoulder to see that Squall had made his arrival much quieter than everyone else had, and closed the door behind him before leaning up against the frame with his arms crossed. Gina found herself remembering how intimidating that pose used to look to her when she first saw it. _Man... things have changed, haven't they?_

"So..." Selphie started, looking around. "What's going on, guys? It must be important if we're meeting in here..." Her eyes suddenly bugged out. "ULTIMECIA DIDN'T COME BACK, DID SHE??"

"NO!" Sharon finally spoke up. "That bitch is LONG gone. But umm... the reason why we wanted you all here is because me and Gina have important news that you all should hear."

To this, Zell and Irvine traded apprehensive glances and straightened up a bit, anticipating at once what the purpose of the gathering was.

"And... Gina can take it away from here." Sharon grinned and elbowed her best friend in the side, causing her to take on a look of incredulousness.

"Come ON, Sharii-chan! We're in this together so we should do this together, not just me!" Her eyes narrowed. "Or do I need to remind you that it was YOU who basically got us into this mess in the first place?"

"Whoa, low blow! Technically, it was Seifer's fault." Sharon tried to save her ass. "I just..."

"Took the bait." Gina finished.

"But you followed!"

"So?? If you hadn't-"

"Girls, please." Cid cut in. "This has got to be the first time I've ever seen you argue like this, and it's even more confusing when I don't even know what all of this has to do with anything. So, if you would, please explain to me what is the purpose of gathering us all here today?"

This shut up the impending argument between them and they fidgeted a bit more before Gina took the reigns.

"Sir... do you remember a mysterious portal that was discovered awhile back? One that seemed to float in midair and that disappeared not long after it was reported?"

The headmaster flicked his gaze to Squall briefly before continuing. "Yes, of course. However, that was classified information only known to a few people."

"And what if we told you that there was another world kind of similar, but kind of not, on the other side of that portal?" Sharon continued. "And that... we... uh..." She trailed off, a cold sweat breaking out on her forehead.

"That you two were from that world on the other side?" Cid finished, propping his chin on his hands with his elbows on the desk in front of him. "If that's what you were going to tell me, then I think I spoiled the surprise by telling you now that I already knew that."

A stunned silence followed as everyone in the room could do nothing but gape. But of course, that was simply the calm before the storm.

"WHAT??" Both Irvine and Zell blinked at each other before the martial artist spun around to look at Squall accusingly. "YOU TOLD???"

Before Squall could open his mouth to defend himself, Quistis turned on him too. "You KNEW? And you didn't tell us?"

"Well, you see, what had happened was..." Sharon prepared to start bullshitting.

Squall put his hands up. "Look, I didn't know the headmaster knew any more than you did, Zell. Don't look at me like that."

Selphie turned and suddenly whacked Irvine on the shoulder. "You knew about it too, didn't you? That's no fair! How many people besides me and Quisty know about all of this?"

"Hey, it's not like it was planned at all!" The cowboy retorted, rubbing his arm. "I was on that mission so it's not like I COULDN'T know!"

"Uh... guys..." Gina timidly started, and nearly jumped half a mile as the entire group faced them and Cid and fired off an almost endless stream of questions that quickly became incoherently loud since everyone's voices started drowning out one another. Even Ravi took cover behind Cid's desk and put his paws over his ears.

"Alright, ORDER!" Headmaster Cid stood from behind his desk and demonstrated his unusual ability to raise his voice louder than the group of young people in front of him. Shocked into silence, they went back to staring at him as he straightened the collar on his red sweater before clearing his throat and sitting down again. "Now that I've gotten your attention in a more manageable manner, I'd like to make the request that if you have any questions about anything that you deliver them in a less troublesome way."

The orphanage gang eyeballed each other, all of them having a question or another but wondering who was going to speak first so as to eliminate another yelling match. Unable to sit still anymore, Zell raised his hand as if he was in class.

Cid tilted his head amusingly at him before nodding his permission, and the blonde blurted out, "How'd you know about Sharon and Gina being from the other world and stuff?"

"Well, that was relatively simple. You see, Squall is an excellent SeeD, yet a horrible liar. BUT..." The headmaster continued as he caught the indignant look Zell shot back to Squall. "He didn't tell me directly. As I was filing the paperwork for the two young ladies right here, I happened to notice that there was something familiar about their names but I really couldn't place where I'd heard of them before. It stayed at the back of my mind until right after I had sent you all off to your first mission in Timber and I looked back over the report Squall had given me months before on the portal mission he went on. It didn't take too much to figure out that it was no coincidence that the same Gina and Sharon that they met in that world were very much the same people who are standing before me now."

Even Squall had to blush slightly at this one. _Great. Thwarted by my own paperwork. Why didn't I think of changing their names?_

"Umm... you're not TOO mad at us, are you?" Gina asked, a hopeful look on her face.

Cid let out a laugh. "Mad? I don't think I was ever mad. Surprised that Squall managed to get this one by me, if only temporarily? Maybe. Even more surprised that Zell kept his mouth shut about it? Certainly. The only thing I do admit to is not expecting you two to make it as well as you did. I only know of your world through the report, but it certainly seems a lot more peaceful. For one, you don't have monsters from the moon running freely in your streets. I didn't think anyone coming from that type of background would make it in this world, let alone as a SeeD. So imagine my shock when I realized that you both succeeded in ridding the world of a terror it has never known!"

"Yeah well... our parents always told us we were special." Sharon lamely joked, half relieved that most of the tension was over. "I don't think this is what they had in mind, but... oh well."

Quistis spoke up next. "So, this other world... what exactly do you do over there? And how did you run into Squall?"

"Oh, that's the boring-ass part." Sharon stated. "Basically, we're college students. We stay on a campus in the middle of nowhere, learn some stuff that people say will be beneficial to getting a well paying job when we graduate in... well, whenever we get our academic shit together, eat food that makes us gain a lot of weight, and procrastinate on anything and everything we're supposed to do while prolonging our freedom away from home. Only real downside to it all is that we pay lots of money to stay at said campus and fail finals."

Selphie put a finger to her cheek. "Oh. Sounds a lot like here, actually."

"Yeah. We um... happened to run into Squall and Irvine at an eating place, figured that they were new, and decided to help them around. Eventually, we encountered Zell, and we made a pretty good team. We played video games, went out to the mall..."

"Ate lots of Einstein's Bagel Dogs..." Zell reminisced, almost salivating.

"Yeah, that too. I'm surprised they made them fast enough to satisfy your appetite. But anyway, eventually the end of the semester came, and our new friends left. Sad but... shit like that happens almost all the time. You make new friends, they transfer to another school or drop out because they're idiots... you know. But because of my most awesome luck, or lack thereof, I found the portal they entered through. Now don't blame the poor guy, because I know he has enough shit on his back wherever he's run off to by now, but it WAS Seifer who told me what it was and goaded me to come visit when I had time. SO... I dragged Gina along, coaxed her with stories of all of the fun we'd have scaring the living hell out of our friends, and here we are. In a nutshell. Small nutshell." Sharon finished.

"That's... great and all. But I still wanna know why you didn't even mention it to Quisty and me." Selphie said, her eyes hurt. "I thought we were friends, and friends don't keep things from one another, right?"

Both Gina and Sharon winced at this, but it was Irvine who answered her. "Honestly, there wasn't any time. Before we all knew it, we were caught up in something that was bigger than all of us. How do you bring up something like that, anyway? It's not exactly a casual conversation topic. The news about the portal was supposed to be kept only to the people on the mission and the superiors involved in the first place, so we would have had to explain that AND the fact that Gina and Sharon were from another world. That would've been too much to handle with everything going on."

"Still... you're right, Selphie." Gina started. "We should have told you. It wouldn't have been easy by any means; even now, when everything's said and done, it's not easy. I'm sure Sharii-chan can agree with me when I say that we both had some issues about being the odd ones out. That's why we were funny at times, because we were trying to distance ourselves from you all. It wasn't really the smartest thing we've done, but I don't think we would have realized that truly until our whole adventure brought us all together. No matter what backgrounds we come from, even if it's something big like a whole nother world... it taught us that the bonds of friendship cover even the widest gaps there is. So, as unplanned as it was... we don't regret sharing all of this time with you."

Selphie sighed, taking it all in and then turning towards the professor. "What do you think about it, Quisty?"

Quistis initially replied with a shrug of her shoulders and her palms spread out in front of her in a helpless manner. "Well... this has certainly been an unexpected shock. I can understand being hurt about not being told, but on a logical level I can see why nothing has been said. What could we do? Sharon and Gina both handled themselves quite well for not being of this world, on top of all of that."

"Oh, we couldn't have handled it at ALL if it wasn't for you guys." Gina put in. "This is not something someone can do on their own. That goes for everyone, not just the people who knew. It's not a topic we wanted to mull over for too long, either. We just wanted to live as well as we could with everyone, until..." She trailed off, averting her eyes to the floor.

"We go home." Sharon bluntly finished.

Cid made a noise and sat straighter in his chair. "So, you arranged this meeting to figure out a way to re-open the portal to get back home?"

Gina shook her head. "Not really. It was more of a notification of the fact that we kind of have a way already... if it works, and all."

"If it works..." Quistis furrowed her eyebrows. "What exactly are you planning?"

Trading a look with Squall for more support, she continued. "I figured with these sorceress powers I now have, that I can re-create a portal back home. I don't know exactly how I'm going to focus myself to this goal, but maybe part of the hard work is already done for me since I'm actually from the place I want to get back to and I can re-open that rift. I know, it sounds like a long shot... but it's me and Sharii-chan's only way out."

"When do you plan on attempting this?" The headmaster asked.

Gina thought for a moment. "Well, it should be at night so it can be seen better. So... tonight, maybe?"

Cid nodded. "That sounds like a plan. I do admit, I'm torn between wishing you luck and not-so-secretly hoping that it won't work so we get to keep you a little bit longer. I'm sure I'm not the only one who has grown quite attached to you two, despite being unplanned interlopers. Oh, and not to mention you both are world-known heroes here. A disappearing act could cause a social uproar for a while."

Sharon raised a finger to her lips and started gnawing on her nail. _Shit, I totally forgot about that. _"Umm... let's commission Dr. Odine for hologram doubles or something?"

"Well, why CAN'T you guys just live here?" Selphie asked, pouting. "I mean, you've been here so long already, would it really matter if you guys went back or not? Or... if this portal thing actually works, can you visit often?"

"This portal wasn't stable when it first appeared, Selphie." Squall spoke up. "If this works, who knows how long it will stay open after it's made."

"Not only that, but as much as we might all want them to stay with us, they left lives of their own behind that they should return to." Cid added. "We don't know the consequences of prolonged stay in a world that isn't originally your own, so it would be best to rectify the situation as soon as possible, if at all possible."

The meeting room lapsed into silence once more, a bit of a somber air between all the occupants of the room. Ravi was left standing beside Cid's desk, figuring it was safe to come out after all of the screaming yet not really fully understanding what had taken place and was looking to everyone in a concerned fashion.

Zell studied the moomba for a second before clapping his hands together suddenly, startling anyone out of whatever funk they were in. "Well, I'm up for a game of Frisbee."

Squall stared at him with the most perturbed expression on his face. "... Frisbee?"

"Yeah. I don't know about the rest of you guys, but I don't want to spend the rest of this day emo. It's nice outside, we're stationary for the first time in Hyne knows how long, and I plan to take advantage of it. And if I was uber-cool like you Squall, I'd take advantage of my commander-powers and order everyone to join me."

"If you execute that order, you know you have to join, too." Quistis brought up, a faint smile on her lips. Squall rolled his eyes and looked completely disinterested and slightly exasperated before surprising everyone by saying, "Alright. I order everyone to go outside and play a monster game of Frisbee. Including myself. Happy?"

"WHOO!" Zell jumped up and impulsively gave Squall a bear hug. "Dude, if you keep this up, I'll take back what I always say about you never wanting to have any fun! C'mon, Ravi! I have a Frisbee that totally matches your fur... I just have to find it in my room somewhere..."

Sharon snorted. "Well, shit, we're never gonna play at that rate. Anyone have a back-up Frisbee?"

Selphie raised her hand, her sadness temporarily forgotten. "Me! And I know exactly where it is, too."

Cid held up his hands with a chuckle. "I'm going to exercise my own ability as Headmaster to opt out of this one. I'm too old to run around with you guys, and on top of that I think I'm the only person in this entire Garden that still has work to do."

As everyone filed out of his office, Sharon excused herself to go to the bathroom while Selphie ran off to retrieve the Frisbee. Gina knew that this was her best friend's way of getting a few moments to herself away from everyone, and steered the rest of the group outside to stake out a good spot of grass to initiate their game. Sharon went back to their dorm and actually DID use the bathroom, but paused before heading back out to join everyone.

She didn't know how she felt about leaving for GV later on that night. In fact, she didn't know how she felt about LEAVING. At first, she was ungodly terrified at the aspect of being sealed off from her home when she first eavesdropped that the portal was gone. To forget about it, she distracted herself by living life as a cadet SeeD, and fell into a sense of regularity despite it all. Then, when all the heavy events started kicking into action, both she and Gina remembered that they didn't actually belong in the FFVIII universe and fell into a depression. To forget about THAT, Sharon put her efforts into making sure they succeeded in defeating Ultimecia to the ultimate goal of packing up and getting home using Gina's makeshift theory directly after. Now, that moment was nearly upon her, and it seemed so anti-climatic that when she searched inside for the drive that she had before... she couldn't find it. It confused her, slightly worried her, but overall left her with a hollow feeling she didn't quite know how to properly address. She COULD possibly equate it to a state of shock, but if that was the case, then she didn't want to know how she would feel once everything was said and done.

Splashing a handful of water on her face in an effort to get her out of her semi-daze, Sharon patted it dry with a paper towel and cleaned her glasses while opening the door to exit the bathroom. Once outside, she abruptly stopped and pursed her lips, narrowing her eyes despite the fact that she couldn't really see all that well without her spectacles.

"I don't believe it. You actually DID follow me to the bathroom." Sharon eased her glasses back on her face, bringing into focus the world around her and the person that was standing to the side outside of the door.

"One down, one more to go." Irvine replied, his usual playful smirk lighting up his blue eyes. "Should I finish off that checklist?"

She glared at him. "I think they'd come looking for us if we were gone THAT long, don't you think?"

"I'm down for a quickie." He stopped and seemed to think about it. "On second thought, no. I'd like to savor our first time together."

Sharon rolled her eyes. "Oh, I'm so honored. Alright, cut the crap; why ARE you here stalking me?"

"You promised a talk."

Her stomach dropped. _God... the moment I've been dreading. I hoped he had forgotten about it. _"Now?"

The cowboy blinked at her. "Yes, now. When else are we going to do this, seeing as though we're pressed for time?"

She stared at him for a few minutes longer before blowing a flyaway tuft of hair off of her forehead in defeat. "Fine, asshole. Let's take this to somewhere less public." Sharon led him down another hallway that led to the room she and Gina shared and let him in reluctantly. Irvine stood in the middle of the room, gazing almost nostalgically around as she closed the door behind him and blinked at him confusedly.

"Don't mind me. I'm just reminded of the time where you first let me in your room back at GVSU."

"That's nice. Let's get this over with. What did you wanna talk about?"

"Me? It was you who suggested it."

Sharon already wanted to strangle him. "What the fuck? You goaded me into this and now you act as if you don't know what the hell is going on?"

Irvine turned to her. "Actually, it's YOU that's still acting as if you don't know what's going on."

"Now I'm actually confused. Why are you so complicated?"

"Why won't you stop running?"

"From WHAT?"

"From us."

Her eyes nearly bugged out in exasperation. "Fuck you, there is no us."

Irvine shot her an exasperated look of his own. "Oh really? I beg to differ."

"Then get to begging. I want to see this. Preferably with you on your knees, as well."

"We can save that for the bedroom. Which is actually right over there..."

"SHUT THE FUCK UP!!"

"There you go, yelling at me again. Which is actually my point."

"... what point? I missed the point."

"That you refuse to admit to yourself that you love me." Irvine caught her train of thought and cut her off before she could retaliate. "Yes, we went over this before in the bookstore in Esthar. But you didn't learn from it at all. You know, the only reason why I put up with your constant abuse is the fact that I know you don't mean it. Maybe I'm masochistic in the fact that a lot of the times I purposely push your buttons just so you can snap at me just so I know you do care for me."

Sharon folded her arms. "That is so stupid."

"Maybe. But I wouldn't do it if you would just answer me truthfully. You want to know my side of the story?" When Sharon made no move to cuss him out, he continued. "When I first met you, I underestimated you. I thought you'd be like every other girl I've met and fall for me, because let's face it; I am just that damn irresistible."

"No, you are not."

"Yes, I am. And I will prove it, if you'd let me finish. Now, where was I? Oh yeah. As soon as you snapped back at me, I was surprised at two things. One, that you have a quick, if not slightly crude, tongue. Two, that you actually wanted me to go die. This fascinated me. A female? Wanting me to go DIE?"

Sharon just stood shaking her head, wondering when she'd be free of this obvious narcissistic speech he was giving. _Lord, give me strength..._

"But we both know that you didn't REALLY want me to go die. It took me a bit to figure that out, but I did in the end. The only thing that I continued to overlook was how I felt about you. In the beginning, you were amusing and interesting. Over time, I got the chance to see you beneath all what you show off to people, and that got me even MORE intrigued. Now... I don't even have a step-by-step explanation of this, because I wasn't completely conscious of it myself. But now I am, and I've come to terms with it. I'm just waiting for you to do the same."

"... I will not."

"Why the hell not? You have nothing to lose. In approximately five hours, you're going to walk through a portal back to your own world and you'll never have to see me again. If I was in your shoes, I'd do it."

"You want to know what I came to terms with? I ended up tolerating your existence a lot longer than I thought I could. If anything, I could say that I LIKE you. But not enough to stop hating you, and definitely not enough to get into any kind of relationship other than friendship with you."

Irvine sighed and removed his cowboy hat, running his free hand through his hair. _And she calls ME complicated. _"Alright. Fair enough."

Sharon stopped and eyeballed him. "Really?"

"YES, really. Even I have my limits. I think I can say I've argued my case to hell and back and I can leave knowing that I put up a good fight."

She could barely get over her shock. "Honestly? You're not going to bug me about it? Or flirt with me incessantly?"

"Honestly. Okay, so I might slip up a bit on the flirting thing, since it's ingrained into my nature by now, but at least you won't have to put up with it for much longer. But I will try to curb it if it makes you that uncomfortable." He paused while replacing his hat. "You're not gonna take your hat back though, are you?"

Sharon managed to shake her head. "No..."

Irvine grinned and straightened his jacket. "Okay, good. Because I did get attached to it." He made a glance out of the window. "Geez, how long have we been talking? They're probably wondering if we died by now, and that would be the only excuse for technically avoiding a direct order from a commander. Shall we go?"

Sharon nodded absentmindedly, her eyebrows furrowed as if she was trying to figure out a mathematical equation. She opened the door to let Irvine out, and she was faintly aware of him stopping to look at her quizzically before stepping into the hallway. She followed him a moment later, her eyes blank and aimed slightly off into the distance. Irvine really was worried about her now, but he decided he wouldn't question it because she didn't really look ready to answer, and walked off down the hallway.

So he really was scared shitless when a hand grabbed his arm and dragged him back into the room he just left.

"What the he-" He was cut off as the door shut behind him and he was shoved forcibly into it.

"Shut up. You have done enough talking." He flinched as Sharon reached up and snatched the cowboy hat off of his head and tossed it to the side.

"Wait, you said I could KEEP it!" Irvine protested, then gaped as she reached for the inside of his jacket, where she slipped her hand up and around the sleeve and tugged one arm free. "Why are you..."

Sharon stopped and looked extremely frustrated with herself. "Ah, fuck it. This is taking too long." She launched herself at him and pressed her lips to his frantically over and over. "Don't you... ever... ever... give up on me like that."

Irvine really couldn't believe it. One minute, he was finally giving up and moving on. The next minute, he was getting raped. He managed to pry her off of him, and he stood there looking at her with her hair all over her head and her eyes wide like a very deranged deer caught in headlights.

"You are... the most crazy, unstable and unpredictable girl I have ever met in my entire life." He stated, looking at her warily.

"Yeah, so?" She replied indignantly, her neck rolling to emphasize her point. "What are you gonna do about it?"

To that, he grinned and resumed his position on the door. "Enjoy it. What else?"

* * *

**Serene Angel Wing: **I LOVE SUGAR I JUST HAD SOME! Betty Crocker makes these awesome Molten Caramel Cake brownie bowls and oh my god... yeah okay before I salivate some more, let me shut up about that. I LOL'd too hard at the ebay comment. I think Gina would snap and kill them all after awhile like "FUCK YOU. I'D HAVE HIM COME AND PROVE IT TO YOU AT THE POINT OF HIS GUNBLADE! And you can't buy THAT ass-whooping off of Ebay!"


	57. Chapter 57

**A/N:** ... so, this is the final chapter. Sadness. Yet, a feeling of accomplishment, too. It just feels pretty weird, though, to end something this big. I wonder if real authors that publish books that take them half their life to finish feel this way.

* * *

"So, you finally admitted that you liked him back. I'm proud of you, Sharii-chan." Gina congratulated her best friend. "But I'm glad I went looking for you when I did, otherwise I think you guys would have missed Frisbee."

Sharon grumbled and tossed a small duffel bag on the table, some of her stuff spilling out. "NO we would NOT HAVE MISSED GODDAMN FRISBEE. My god, what do you take me for; a common harlot or something?"

"No, of course not." She failed at hiding a smirk. "I'm just wondering what would have happened if I had walked in fifteen minutes later..."

Sharon stared wide-eyed at Gina, her face tinting with pink. "I can't believe you! This is blasphemy. If Tiffany knew what her 'prude' roommate was insinuating right now, she'd have a heart attack."

"And then she'd congratulate me for growing up." Gina sighed, actually nostalgic for her pink friend. "This is the only time that I'll think fondly of Tiffany, I swear."

"Yeah, that'll change once you see her again." Sharon paused as she examined her Lisa Frank jacket, the one she hadn't worn since the first day she arrived. Both she and Gina had put back on the clothes they had on that fateful day, in hopes that it'd trigger something in the process of trying to get home and also because they knew it was still in the dead of winter back in Allendale. "Hey, G-fuu... what are you gonna do about Ravi?"

Gina sighed again. "Well, I can't bring him back to GV, that's for sure. He'll be fine here at the Garden. I'm sure Zell won't mind taking care of him; he has the energy to keep up with Ravi when he's playful, and I think even Headmaster Cid liked having him around his office. I heard he made himself quite a helpful moomba while we were off looking to beat Ultimecia."

The girls fell into a silence as they finished packing up and then looked around at their surroundings before meeting each other's gaze.

"If this is how it's gonna feel like when we finally graduate from Grand Valley, then I don't look forward to that at all." Sharon commented.

"That's IF this works." Gina pointed out, despite her personal feelings.

"Oh, it will. It's crazy enough TO work." Sharon shouldered her duffel bag. "As much as it totally sucks to leave after going through so much, Cid was right. The consequences of us staying here might suck worse in the long run if we DON'T get back home."

"True. Well... they're waiting, so..." Gina let her voice trail off as she cast one more glance around their dorm room that had become more familiar to them in ways that their one's at GVSU weren't, then opened the door.

It was a little bit after curfew and well after dark when they made their way towards the main entrance to Garden, so as to avoid any questions by random SeeD who would certainly recognize them and wonder why they were heading out so late. Just outside of the watchman's station stood the rest of the gang, even with Headmaster Cid and Ravi in tow. Gina half-wished that Ravi wasn't there, since saying goodbye to the moomba would be almost just as hard as saying goodbye to everyone else.

"So, you guys ready to do this?" Zell asked unnecessarily as an effort to start some kind of conversation that would help ease everyone's nerves.

"I guess we are." Gina nodded and the whole unit moved off into the night, the stars and the moon soon becoming their only source of light as they searched for a slightly remote spot away from both the Garden and the town to attempt making the portal. No one spoke during this transit, everyone lost within his or her own thoughts. It wasn't until Squall stopped and examined their surroundings and notified them all that the place should be good that broke the silence, and everyone blinked back to reality as if waking from a dream.

Gina put down her bag of stuff and rubbed her hands together. _ It's all or nothing now, Regina. Time to do this. _She didn't chance looking back to anyone, fearing that it would disrupt her concentration before trying to open the portal. Instead, she took a deep breath and closed her eyes and attempted to still her mind into a meditative state. Once a few minutes of stillness had passed, she lifted her right hand and started resurfacing select images that would help her accomplish what she had come there to do.

She thought of home, first. It was hard to do this initially, since the memories were so far buried in her, but they began to flow easier after awhile. Even though it was tempting to do so, she didn't let herself linger too long on that, since she didn't want to risk having a portal open somewhere in Detroit and having to explain to her parents how she appeared at her house with Sharon in tow, and also before she was scheduled home in the first place. Gina then summoned an image of GVSU, nestled remotely in the heart of Allendale. She narrowed down her focus, bit by bit, taking small amounts of time to remember what Mackinac Hall looked like with its confusing staircases, Kleiner with its quiet room full of cozy booths and the smell of coffee drinks, and the signature bridge that linked two sides of the campus together. The Arboretum came into focus next, and Gina tried her hardest to make apparent every possible detail she remembered of that night right down to the snow-covered vines twirled around the archway. She thought she felt something catch on her fingers when she did this, and she thought explicitly: _We need to go back. Give us a way there._

Once she thought she exerted enough will to make her brain short-circuit, she chanced lowering her arm and opening her eyes that had been squeezed almost painfully shut.

And the blank night air greeted her.

Sharon stepped up beside Gina, glancing from her face to the spot she was still staring at repeatedly. "So... it didn't work?"

Gina started to shake her head when a spark of light caught her eye directly in front of her, and her mouth slowly dropped open as the light expanded outwards like a silent nova, almost blinding her.

Quistis gasped and started forward. "Wow... I can't believe it."

Everyone looked as the portal, complete with its trademark Superman Ice Cream colors, floated in the air much like the original did. The tear between their worlds was paper thin, and Sharon stuck her arm through as a makeshift test.

"Well, it's cold as fuck on the other side, so that means it's Allendale, alright." She pulled her arm back through and shook it a few times. "It's a bit tingly, too. Didn't notice that the first time, but then again, I wasn't really thinking, so yeah."

"And I guess this is it." Cid said, managing to smile slightly. "I would say make sure you come back and visit soon, but I don't think that will be possible."

Sharon and Gina stood awkwardly across from the rest of the group, the physical separation between them all somehow signifying the gap that the two worlds would always have from that point on. They just looked at each other, wanting to say so much but knowing that they couldn't, since the portal wouldn't stay open indefinitely. Suddenly, Selphie choked back a sob and ran full speed towards the girls and glomped them together, almost knocking them on their asses.

"I don't want you guys to go! I was hurt when I found out the truth about you guys, but knowing that once you go through there that we won't be able to see you ever again... I can't take it. We went through so much together. It's hard to believe that there will be no more adventures, and our group won't ever feel complete again. But I know, wherever we are, we'll never forget each other, because we'll be friends forever, right?" Selphie looked up to them, her face ruddy and stained with tears, making her green eyes shine like emeralds in the soft light that the portal was giving off behind them.

Sharon swallowed hard, trying to dislodge the lump that her throat had found during Selphie's little speech. "We promise, Selphie. We promise. Friends forever..." The rush of emotions she was getting from the normally perky girl overloaded the blocks she was putting up to keep her own at bay, and she burst into tears with the realization that it was really happening, that their adventure had come to an end. In that single moment, she truly realized what it was to say goodbye to a friend. She had many friends come and go, but that had been more of a natural occurrence either caused by a major disagreement or drifting. Now, she felt like she was getting ripped from some of the people who had grown close to her heart without her actually knowing, without even the promise of reuniting.

Gina's own eyes had already begun to overflow, and she wrapped Selphie and Sharon into a hug, trying to comfort everyone. Soon, the rest of the group had filtered over and created a massive group hug, where there were sniffles all around. Even Squall found himself tearing up despite the stoic face he swore to wear that night, but he managed not to let them overflow. Headmaster Cid stood off to one side, watching respectfully with wistful smile, touched by the affection they showed for one another.

Nobody knew how long they stood there in the night clinging to each other, but eventually the sobs died down to random sniffles, and they all took a moment to gather themselves.

"Well. That was slightly embarrassing. I just snotted myself in front of all of you." Sharon found a tissue and blew her nose after rubbing her lenses clear of all of the tears that had managed to collect on its surface. "Not like it matters, though." She unclipped the belt around her waist that held her pistols, and held them out to Irvine. "Here you go, cowboy. Make sure these get back to Jenkins for me. I can't be caught dead with firearms on campus, let alone trying to explain to my parents why I have guns in the house."

"Yes, ma'am." Their fingers brushed and Sharon didn't jerk back this time, instead letting them linger for a moment longer before completely handing the guns over to him.

"That's a good idea." Gina eased out of the strap that held her sheathed katana on her back and gave it to Squall.

The commander blinked before accepting it. "I'm sure you can get away with having this on campus as long as you keep it hidden."

Gina gave him a look, complete with raised eyebrow. "Not with Tiffany as my roommate, I can't. She'd bug the hell out of me about it, and that's something I'd like to avoid since she already drives me up the wall for less. Not to mention what Sharii-chan said about explaining it to my parents. I've never been one for weapons, so they'll DEFINITELY ask questions."

Ravi scuttled away from his place beside Cid and clung to one of Gina's legs, looking up to her with pitiful black eyes. "No!"

_Oh my god, if I start crying again, I swear I won't have any more tears left for a year. _She bent down and huggled the moomba for the last time. "I'm sorry, Ravi, but it's time for me to go. These guys will take good care of you, I promise. Thanks for serving us our food when we were in D-District." Gina detached Ravi's paws from her leg where they immediately re-attached to the next nearest leg, which happened to be Zell's.

Quistis found herself staring back up at the portal in awe. "I wish we could see what was on the other side..."

"I'd be all for it if there wasn't a risk involved, myself." Cid spoke up. "It seemed like the guys who went had a lot of fun that I think I'll be jealous of for quite awhile."

That got a chuckle out of everyone, lightening the mood by a notch or two. Sharon reached into one of the side pockets of her duffel and pulled out a CD case, which she shoved into the free hand of Squall. "There you go, commander. It's my last gift to all of you guys. You can't have my CD collection, as much as your world definitely needs the music, since I'm attached to my tunes as much as my lungs need oxygen. But here's a piece of it, so that'll have to do. Just, when you listen to it, make sure you hear the last track first."

Squall gave her a confused look, but as usual, didn't bother questioning it. "Alright."

The two best friends glanced at each other before making sure they had everything. Sharon blew a big kiss back at the group. "Thanks for everything, you guys! Keep it real!"

Gina took a moment to survey the group once more. Zell had picked up Ravi and perched the moomba on his shoulders, and together they gave a thumbs up. Quistis gave a nod and a smile along with Cid, while Selphie bounced and waved with both hands, half looking like she was going to cry again despite the big smile she had plastered on her face. Irvine tipped his hat and winked one last time, and Squall simply looked back at them, his face initially unreadable. A pang of guilt washed over Gina, when she remembered that it was because Ellone left all that time ago that Squall became the closed person he is, and she didn't want him to go through a relapse of sorts with her. She became aware of the Griever pendant hanging underneath her hoodie and she raised a hand to feel where it lay against her chest. At this, Squall finally gave a soft smile and lifted a hand in farewell. Gina let out the breath she didn't know she was holding, and gave a relieved smile. _He'll be fine._

"Hey, G-fuu."

"Yeah, Sharii-chan?"

"What if I told you that this portal led to another world?"

Gina felt a corner of her mouth lift, facing the swirls with her best friend. "I'd call you crazy."

"Good. Shall we go?"

Holding hands, the girls stepped through, crossing worlds for the last time.

* * *

"Gimme that." Zell snatched the CD out of Squall's hands after the group made it back to Garden. "I wanna know what this is all about."

Squall frowned and made to grab it back. "It's after curfew, Zell. Can't it wait until tomorrow?"

The blonde moved out of his way easily. "No, it can't. Who else wants to hear it?"

"ME!" Selphie proclaimed. "Let's take it down to the stage near the quad. Sharon kept her tweaked audio equipment there."

The commander sighed heavily and looked to the headmaster for help.

Cid shrugged to Squall's disbelief. "Just make sure it isn't too loud and don't disturb anybody."

_Hyne, I just really wanted a good night's sleep. _Giving in, Squall followed everyone to the stage on one side of the Garden, where Zell leaped up on it and tested the sound level on a mic before putting in the CD.

"The last track first, right?" Zell moved through all the other songs and stopped at Track 10. Before long, an alternative rock song sounded out of the speakers, and everyone settled temporarily in chairs to listen.

_To every broken heart in here_

_Love was once a part, but now it's disappeared_

_She told me that it's all a part of the choices that you make_

_Even when you think you're right_

_You have to give to take_

_But there's tomorrow_

_Forget the sorrow_

_And I can be on the last train home_

_Watch it pass the day, as it fades away_

_No more time to care_

_No more time, today_

_But we sing_

_If we're going nowhere_

_Yeah, we sing_

_If it's not enough_

_And we sing_

_Sing without a reason_

_To ever fall in love_

* * *

Gina put the key into her room door on the first level of Swanson Living Center, feeling like she hadn't been back to that room in years. Everything felt so alien to her, despite everything being in it's proper place. The weather was the same, their footprints were still in the snow-covered ground in the Arboretum, and their watches worked again. She didn't know how long it was going to take for her to adjust back to living a normal life, and in all honesty she didn't want to contemplate it for too long. She was tired.

Stifling a yawn, she opened the door and stepped inside, dropping her bag on the floor. "Hey, Tiffany."

Her roommate looked at her distractedly, half engrossed in an episode of Charmed playing on her Hello Kitty TV set. "Oh, hi Gina. That was quick." She went back to her Criminal Justice homework laid out on the desk in front of her before snapping her head back up in shock. "WHAT DID YOU DO TO YOUR HAIR!?!?"

Gina frowned at her in confusion before remembering the red streaks that were still in her hair and were NOT there when she left the dorm room the last time. "Oh... uh, yeah..."

Tiffany got up and scuttled over to Gina, taking her head in her hands and twisting it from side to side, examining the new additions to her everyday ponytail hairstyle. "Sharon did this? My god... your parents are going to KILL you..." Her eyes drifted to Gina's duffel. "What the heck is all of that? You didn't leave here with that, did you?"

Gina pried herself away from Tiffany. "No... Sharii-chan gave it to me." She was hoping Tiffany wouldn't ask any more questions, since she didn't think she'd have to come up with any excuses upon returning.

"Oooh, what's in it? Sharon never gives ME anything... I'm jealous." She reached for the bag, which Gina kicked under her bed.

"Okay, STOP IT. Don't touch my stuff."

"Geez, Gina, I just want to SEE it. Why are you so selfish?"

Gina felt her anger rising. "Why are you so NOSY?"

"You don't have to YELL."

"I'M NOT YELLING!"

"You just yelled!"

_I wonder if you're listening_

_Picking up on the signals sent back from within_

_Sometimes it feels like I don't really know what's going on_

_Time and time again, it seems like everything is wrong in here_

_But there's still tomorrow_

_Forget the sorrow_

_And I can be on the last train home_

_Watch it pass the day, as it fades away_

_No more time to care_

_No more time, today_

_

* * *

_Sharon tossed her own bag down on the floor of her empty dorm, knowing that her roommate Anne was once again away for the weekend and wouldn't be back until late Sunday night. She sat in her computer chair and leaned back, enjoying the silence and solitude.

_I've been through more shit than any other college student I know, and it's only my first year here. _Shifting her eyes to her computer screen, she moved the mouse to disable the screen saver and went to her Winamp. There she searched her forever growing list of mp3s for the song that she told Squall to play first and double-clicked on it, making sure her speakers were turned on.

She and Gina had basically sworn never to tell another living soul about the adventure they went through with the FFVIII crew. Not like they could tell anyone without being seen as an obsessed video game nerd or just plain insane, anyway. Sharon found it amazing how much they both had changed, yet in some ways not at all. _You can't go through all of that crap and NOT experience some life changes, I guess. _She didn't know Gina would ever get around to replaying Final Fantasy VIII like she had wanted to before it all started; she herself would be taking a break from FFX as it was.

Living a normal life would be hard, especially at Grand Valley. There was really absolutely NOTHING to do except go to class, go eat, and go back to your dorm. But they both had to do it. They also had to somehow find a way to push that long period of time they spend in that other universe to the back of their minds without forgetting the friendship that they shared with people that never should have existed outside of a pixilated video game screen. Neither of them had the slightest idea of how to do that, but they both figured they had more than enough time to figure it out.

Stretching enough to shake the remainders of the cold Michigan weather out of her bones, Sharon got up and started packing to go home for Winter Break, as she'd almost forgotten that the end of the semester was upon her already.

_But we sing, if we're going nowhere_

_Yeah we sing, if it's not enough_

_And we sing_

_Sing without a reason, to ever fall in love_

_But we sing_

_If we're going nowhere_

_Yeah we sing_

_If it's not enough_

_And we sing_

_Sing without a reason, to never fall in love_

_To never fall in love, again_

_

* * *

_

**Maaske Tsukikage: ** You think so? To be honest, I had issues with every chapter I wrote after Ultimecia's defeat. I guess going so long writing chapter after chapter of nothing but non-stop action of some sort, I had problems boiling it down to end it. Well, that and the fact that I really, REALLY, didn't want it to end. But looking back on them, I guess they're not as badly written as I had originally thought. A bit cliche with all of the happy wrap-ups maybe, but not bad at all. I'm too hard on myself, sometimes.

But oh yes... there will be a sequel, against my better judgment. It'll be as unorthodox as SR is, and it might throw a lot of folks for a loop. But that's all I'm gonna say about that before I blurb out corporate secrets, LOL!

**Serene Angel Wing: ** It's nice to know that there are die-hard romantics out there, still. I'm a closet one myself; I normally scoff at all cheesy stuff as "Disney-ass shit", but I enjoy a bit of it. I know I couldn't leave strings untied, since I hate hate HATE romantic angst like that. The only thing I hate more than that is unrequited love, which is unfortunately a theme in so many Final Fantasy and other RPG games. Nobody should go through that, fictional or not. But alas, it happens, and it is a good plot carrier, I'll give everyone that.

Sending them a copy of FFVIII... I'll keep that in mind. LMFAO, THE MEAT CLEAVER!! "Who was that chick in blue again?" Oh man, I shouldn't have laughed at that either, because I half feel guilty that I didn't give Rinoa more story-time. But not guilty enough to stop laughing.

A sorceress outbreak on Earth. Damn. How the HELL would you explain the damage from a spell like Ultima? I don't even WANNA think about that.


	58. A Letter from the Author

I wrote this before I even write the final chapters of this fanfiction, mostly because I don't want to end something that has been pretty much a constant for 5 years of my life in one way or another.

When I first started writing Severed Reality, it was during my freshman year at college at Grand Valley State University, exactly where the timeline in this story takes place. I had NOT played Final Fantasy VIII; my first Final Fantasy was X and I ended up working backwards in the series. But my best friend Gina loved VIII as much as I loved X... and I loved FFX enough to dedicate over 400 hours of my life to it. I was in the middle of re-writing my original Sailor Moon fanfiction, Sailor Star, but I was kind of bored with it. Looking back on your old work that you were once so proud of is really depressing, especially when it almost always ends with a facepalm and a "What the HELL was I THINKING?" I needed something new, just to take my mind off of things.

So I decided to write what would later become this large monstrosity called Severed Reality.

One of the reasons why I think Severed Reality became somewhat popular is because of how I wrote it. It's almost sad when I compare this fiction to the only other one I have ever written and find that the latter wasn't nearly as successful, despite the fact that I had meticulously planned out everything before actually writing it. I actually hand drew my own fanart for Sailor Star, seriously. But with SR... the ENTIRE thing was pulled, chapter by chapter, out of my ass. It is probably the most beautiful thing that my ass has produced, if I do say so myself. In the beginning, my only purpose was to make sure I was laughing my head off by the time I finished every chapter. How did I accomplish this? Well, I didn't know until I was finished writing it, usually. Every now and then, I'd get ideas or scenes that were really good and I had to figure out how to integrate it into the story where it wasn't so ridiculously out of the blue, but that was as far as my planning went. Even then, an idea could leave just as fast as it came and I'd be on another whim that took its place. Later on down the road, when I actually sat down and played FFVIII, I acquired a method to my madness and used the main storyline to continue coming up with ways to make sure that almost every chapter was an individual story in itself. But I guess it's true what they say, that the best laid plans aren't planned at all.

Another reason was because of the versatility of the two main interlopers, Gina and Sharon. Yes, they are OC's, and I could have very easily done what most fanfiction authors do and turn their OC's into Mary Sue's. But I didn't, and the way I avoided that catastrophe was to simply remain true to life down to the smallest aspect. Readers can't be expected to connect with characters that aren't realistic, especially when dealing with OCs who start off at the bottom and have to EARN the respect of the fanbase you're subjecting them to. Who exactly ARE Gina and Sharon? On the obvious level, they are best friends who are almost complete opposites ranging from their personalities to their body structure. But on a more basic level, they are normal people caught in a very strange and unexpected turn of events and end up having to deal with it as best as they can, WITHOUT losing themselves in the process. They are fueled by their obvious obsession with the Final Fantasy franchise to take all the steps they were bold enough to take, but they also had very real fears that keep them from becoming totally immersed in a fictional universe. There is absolutely nothing false about them or their initial surroundings; GVSU is a real university, Allendale actually exists, Gina is the Gina that I knew and grew up with since high school, Sharon is the girl I have to look at every time I face a mirror, Tiffany and Anne were our respective roommates, and just about everything about that world and their backgrounds (even right down to their quirks) is how it actually is in real life. The only things that were obviously NOT true to life was the appearance of Squall, Irvine, Zell, and Seifer... which ironically turned the tables and made the FFVIII crew OC's in Gina and Sharon's very real and terribly mundane universe.

This brings me to the next reason why Severed Reality was so fun to write, which was because of the equal versatility of just about every person in the FFVIII universe. Sometimes I found myself wondering why the FFVIII category held one of the largest fanfiction bases in the Final Fantasy series, but once I started writing SR I figured out why. The characters are just so CONNECTABLE in ways that the other characters in other FF's aren't. I mean, think about it; can you REALLY take Zidane, Sephiroth or Auron and make them as real as someone who you met at a bar or something? Okay well, I'm sure you can with a lot of effort, and I'm just as equally sure it's already been done, but the orphanage gang from FFVIII just fits. Why? Because they too are normal people within their own universe that get stuck saving the world from an evil sorceress from the future. Of course, they are less normal than Gina and Sharon, but they weren't so abnormal that they couldn't effortlessly blend in with a bunch of college students at a university. We all know an emo kid that's too angsty to talk to anyone, we all know of a self-proclaimed ladies man, we can go out and find a hyper boy with an insatiable appetite, and nobody has LIVED until they encounter the guy who thinks he's the shit and needs everyone to bow down or else. I didn't even play FFVIII until I had written 8 chapters, and I think if I hadn't have mentioned it nobody would have known otherwise. That's how you know Square Enix made some good damn characters; don't even have to play the game to feel like you already know the people you're dealing with.

I played FFVIII once, and I must admit if it wasn't for SR I don't think I would have gotten around to playing it. I managed to do what I never was able to do with a FF and complete everything the game had to offer before beating it to avoid replays, and in less than 70 hours. I liked the game a lot, and the ending made me cry like a baby despite the fact that it wasn't sad. Like just about every good RPG, there were many plot holes. Like every good gamer, I noticed said plot holes. Like the insane woman that I am, I filled them up in my fanfiction. Instead of ignoring them, I purposely drew attention to the questions I remember I had when I was playing FFVIII and then charged myself with the duty of doing what Square Enix didn't and came up with adequate answers to all of those questions. Why was Irvine such a wuss on the mission at Deling City? Why were Seifer and Squall such heated rivals in the first place? What is Hyne and why is Hyne so important in the FFVIII world? What exactly was going through Laguna's mind when he saw his son for the first time? How do spells and potions work? The list can go on and on, and I knew I was not the only person to be wondering these things so I tried my best to bullshit reasons for why things the way they were so people can finish reading my fiction and come off with something more than what they came in with... even if they come away terribly confused.

The only thing I can say that I regret about Severed Reality was the fact that it took me 5 freaking years to finish it. It wasn't supposed to last longer than my second year at the MOST. Writer's block kicked me in the butt, then I slacked off a lot, then I had no time. On top of that, I was growing as a person, which at times made the difference between the real me and the Sharon I wrote in SR very large indeed. I can't begin to tell you how many times I stopped in the middle of writing a piece of dialogue and deleted it while saying "No, that's how you act NOW Sharon; that's not how you would have acted back THEN." Perhaps it was me being too meticulous about it all, because the only person to notice the small changes would have been Gina, but still. Gina and Sharon went through changes of their own through the course of their entire action packed adventure, but I didn't want to combine that with the changes that the REAL Gina and Sharon experienced.

I dedicated and wrote this fiction for my best friend, but I owe a lot of thanks to those who also showed me that I did a good job. I seriously expected this story to get ignored or flamed for what it was, but I did get pleasantly surprised. I am not a regular R/R person; the most I'll do is favorite the fiction I really like and recommend it to all of my friends under penalty of death or something like that. But if it weren't for the reviews that I got, I wouldn't have known that other people outside of me and Gina actually shared our enthusiasm for the story. I got E-mails from people as well, even during my periods of stasis where I couldn't write for months at a time. There was never a time where I forgot about Severed Reality, but you guys made sure that I didn't forget it anyway by your support. If I could publish this I would. But I can't, because Grand Valley and Square Enix would sue me by the very LEAST. Tiffany and Anne don't know that this story even exists, and I don't even want to think about the record labels of whatever songs I threw in here, the random video game references I made, and the TV shows or movies that made short cameos in the fic, too.

It'd be funny in a way, however, because I wouldn't be publishing Severed Reality to make money, I'd be doing it to make potential readers happy. Because everyone deserves a good story.

... so I guess I'd better get started on the sequel.

Sharon-Ann Gladden

September 12, 2007

P.S. Oh, and just in case you were curious of the songs that were on the CD that Sharon passed to the gang right before heading home, I will list them below. XD I guess it's an impromptu OST to this fanfiction, because I am a dork like that and thought about these things.

01. Stunt - Raindrops

02. Michelle Branch - Everywhere

03. DJ Kaos & Ethos - Blue Moon

04. Avril Lavigne - Slipped Away

05. Yellowcard - Ocean Avenue

06. Yellowcard - Empty Apartment

07. Hoobastank - Right Before Your Eyes

08. Art of Trance feat. Michele Adamson - Love Washes Over

09. J-Kwon - Tipsy

10. Lost Prophets - Last Train Home

If you don't have some sort of P2P file sharing program on your computer, have problems finding some of the songs, or are just plain lazy and don't feel like looking for them but want the tracks anyway, E-mail me and I'll send them to you. No, that's not exactly legal of me to offer, but this entire fiction is probably a legal eyesore, so I don't care.


End file.
